Things to Do in Sandakan

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan is one of only four places in the world set up to preserve and protect orangutans. Established in a corner of the Kabili-Sepilok rainforest reserve in 1964, the center has expanded in recent years as the number of orphaned and abandoned orangutans has grown due to ongoing destruction of their habitat. The center cares for these endangered animals until they are strong or old enough to return to the Borneo jungle, offering daily feedings of milk and bananas to supplement their diets while encouraging them to start foraging for themselves. Other animals treated at the center include gibbons, sun bears, elephants, and Sumatran rhinos.

A raised wooden walkway takes you to a feeding platform, where orangutans living wild in the reserve emerge from the rainforest to free feed if they wish. While not all the orangutans make an appearance at feeding time (there’s no guarantee any will show up at any given feeding), this is the best opportunity to see them in their natural habitats. Visitors can also observe adolescent orangutans in their final stages of rehabilitation in a protected outdoor nursery facility.

In the heart of the mangrove forests of Semawang in Sandakan, the privately owned Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary allows travelers to observe the rare and distinctive proboscis monkeys in their natural Borneo habitat.