Tanjung Puting National Park – Borneo

Tanjung Puting is the most popular tourist destination in Kalimantan, and for good reason. A near guarantee that you’ll see free-roaming orangutans, combined with a storybook journey up a winding jungle river, gives this adventure world-class appeal. And though remote, the park is easily reached via direct flights from Jakarta and Surabaya.

The best known animals in Tanjung Puting are the orangutans, made famous through the long-term efforts of the Orangutan Research and Conservation Program (predecessor to OFI), based at the landmark Camp Leakey research station. Orangutan feedings at Tanjung Puting National Park are part of an ongoing rehabilitation process, but also allow visitors a near-guaranteed opportunity to see the great apes in semi-wild surroundings. Feedings take place at three camps: Tanjung Harapan (3pm), Pondok Tangui (9am) and Camp Leakey (2pm). Times are generally fixed and scheduled to allow boat-bound tourists to visit all three on a two-night boat trip. Reaching camp feeding stations requires a short walk through jungle from the dock.

Tanjung Puting also boasts the bizarre looking proboscis monkey with its “Jimmy Durante” nose as well as seven other primate species. Clouded leopards, civets, and Malaysian sun bears cavort in the park, as do mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, and the wild cattle known as banteng. Tanjung Puting hosts over 230 species of birds, including hornbills, deep forest birds, and many wetland species. Tanjung Puting is well known for its “bird lakes,” seasonal rookeries for a half a dozen species of endangered water birds, including the only known Bornean nesting grounds for white egrets. Tanjung Puting also has two species of crocodiles, dozens of snakes and frogs, numerous threatened species, including the fortune-bringing and highly endangered “dragon” fish also known as the Arwana (bony-tongue). Among the most flamboyant of these animals are the many species of colourful birds, butterflies, and moths found in the Park.