The Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP), located in Sabah, Malaysia is constantly striving to protect habitat and initiate innovative ideas to help wildlife.
TOP has provided $30,000 to Hutan to support the Wildlife Warden programme in 2014-2015. The Wildlife Warden teams monitor and protect the wildlife and habitat within the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and they also engage in community outreach and conservation programmes in the area.
In 2014, the team of KOCP orangutan field research assistants has followed 30 different wild orangutans within the intensive study site located in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. They secured a total of 157 full nest-to-nest observation days (and 1916 hours of direct observation). This is a 65% increase compared to 2013. Twelve of the orangutans followed by the team were not habituated and had not been encountered previously.
The results of monthly phenological monitoring indicated that more fruits were available in the forest overall compared to the two previous years, although no mass fruiting event occurred in Kinabatangan in 2014. Although orangutans preferentially consume fruits, a large part of their diet is made up with young leaves and shoots, flowers and barks. To date, 327 plant species have been identified as being part of the orangutan diet.
