Tag Archives: orangutan

orangutan open coconut

Animal Shows at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

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Now you are not only looking at the animals at Lok Kawi zoo, they also do show to entertain you. There are two shows at 11:15am and 3:30pm daily in their Ampiteater. You will have chance to get close and interact with orangutan, hornbill, parrot, snake and eagle. I was there to watch the show on Mar 1. Marsha, the orangutan, started the show by peeing and shitting from the sky, haha…

Then an audience was invited to challenge Marsha on opening coconut. Orangutan’s arm is 3 times stronger than human, so peeling coconut by hands is piece of cake to them, while the audience was using chopping knife to cut.

Marsha kept watching at her challenger, so she started slow. Though she tried to catch up later, she still lost. Anyway, we learn the teeth and arm power of orangutan, and know why wild orangutan is not a suitable pet. Just imagine coconut is your head.

Hornbills also came in to impress us. The trainers made them to fly from one side to another. Nothing cool about seeing bird flying. The fun part was to see some audiences got freak out, as hornbills are big bird with huge beak and fierce-looking. They were only trained for a few months, so they would have more to offer in the future.

Paco and Carlo, the cute and colourful parrots also performed a few tricks, to show off their eye sight and slam dunk skill. You hide a ball under one of the bowls, shuffle them a few times, and the parrot could locate the bowl that has the ball. To prove that the trainer didn’t hint the birds, the audience could try it. If I were her, I would hide the ball in my hand and see how they respond, heheh..


The luckiest performer is the Sawa Batik snake, coz it doesn’t need to do anything. During the show, the staff also teaches us something about the animals, making the learning experience fun. This show alone is already worth more than the RM10 ticket.

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Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

Photos taken in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Sabah VIPs in Poverty

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(This actually an old post, but I add more new photos at bottom. The last photo will blow you away, haha…) They don’t give boring speech, and thousands of people from overseas want to meet them. They are the key contributors of our billion-dollar eco-tourism business but they would leave us forever… But those, who threaten their lives, live in big houses, drive luxury cars, and pollute the earth…

Yes, the VIPs that I talk about are our eco-tourism Superstars, i.e. Orang-Utan, Proboscis Monkey, Pygmy Elephants, and Sumtran Rhino (四大天王). With wildlife and nature as selling points, our eco-tourism promotion is so successful that even the fellows from Peninsular Malaysia think we live on tree. Our hotel occupation rate climbs to 95%. Our future seems bright.

They are our rice bowl, but many of them die of hunger or losing their homes. They are only 1 or 2 steps away from extinction. Just look at the table below and see what is really happening. Their combined population is even less than the population of Ranau town. If we don’t do anything, I doubt if the tourists can see them again in the wild years later.


Sources: IUCN Red List, CITES Appendix, WWF. For more intepretation detail on the conservation status, please refer to IUCN

Deforestation and oil palm plantation have long been recognised as one of the major threats. Research has shown that the conversion of forests into oil palm plantations leads to the complete loss of 80-90% of mammals, reptiles and birds.

In Support of “Malaysia Wildlife Conservation Awareness 08”:

Please blog about wildlife conservation to support this campaign.

Development is important but it should be carried out in a more sustainable manner, which lessen the impact to the environment. Frankly, I can’t tell you if I could see those superstars again after 10 years, but most of us would live long enough to see them disappear from the earth forever. Anyone knows the status of the oil palm encroahment at Kinabatangan? Please share with me the most recent photo if you have any.

Lok Kawi Zoo

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In the past, I always wonder why Borneo never has a zoo of its own, since we have been telling the world that we have rich variety of wild plant and animals. We also enjoy making the mouth of our tourists open wide, with the number of blah blah species we have in Borneo. Whatever, all this impressive facts sound more like a number. Nobody really knows what are the “content”. Many locals don’t even know what are pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys. At last, we have a “Lokkawi Zoo” (The correct name is “Lok Kawi Wildlife Park”). It is a good start, though it is not only showing animals that are native to Sabah.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

If you said Lok Kawi, I would think you mean the road between KK International Airport and Kinarut. Later I figured out the Lok Kawi Zoo is actually next to the Old Penampang road. If you follow the road from KK to Dongongon town, just go straight after you passby Dongongon town, after nearly 10 minutes, you will see its signboard at your left side. About 18 km from KK, but very near to people live in Penampang. The zoo is open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

Probably it is newly open, the response is quite good. I went there on Monday and there were 30 to 50 cars parked there at any time. To see what are in their zoo, you may Check out the Trail Map I got with the ticket. The entrance fee is RM10 for Malaysia Adult, RM5 for children, RM20 (nearly USD6) for foreigner adult tourist, RM10 for foreigner children. The admission is free for Malaysia Senior Citizens (above 60).


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

What they have? They have birds, deers, orang utan, proboscis monkeys, civets, elephants, ostrich, hornbills, tigers, otter, rhino, etc. They also have a Botanical garden, but I haven’t explored it. For serious visitors who want to learn something, it can be a full day trip. However, they don’t have restaurant or cafe shop in the park to provide lunch. Overall, the facilities and trail are well planned. For bigger animals such as tiger, they have an allocated open space, and the visitors can see them from a viewing shelter, which is equipped with fans and description board.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

They also have elephant ride (for children below 12 only) at 10.30am – 11.30am and 3.30pm – 4.30pm. Hope they will have tiger ride soon, hahaha… I personally think that morning is the best time to visit. Coz in the hot afternoon, most animals would become tired and sleepy, hiding in shaded area, no mood to move already. BTW, I recorded a video of orangutan playing and relaxing, Click Here to watch it.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

Sadly, the Reptile House (for snakes and lizards) is still under construction. Hope they will be completed soon. Overall, the park is well done, but I have a few suggestions:

1) Provide more shaded area for the animals
Goodness… I advise the people there take a walk in the forest and feel how cooling it is. Most area only provide a small tree or net covering roof. The excessive light still makes their surrounding very hot.

2) Animal Employee’s Right
Welfare for the animals again. The park should be closed for 1 day per week, so the animals can rest and release stress.

3) Offer Lunch and Food
With that number of traffic flow, it is probably not wise not to have a restaurant that provides food, something like stomach filler, not just light snap.

4) Provide better direction
Build more signboards next to the road. Good for promotion too.

Photos taken in Lok Kawi, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo