Updated Sept 2026 details verified
The internet holds a dozen contradictory versions of every Sepilok figure. This page holds one version, checked this month, with sources — and a line on what each number actually means. Journalists, students, and fellow fact-checkers: this one's for you.
| Figure | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1964 | World's first official orangutan rehabilitation project |
| Operator | Sabah Wildlife Department | State government agency — not private, not NGO |
| Free-living orangutans in the reserve | 60–80 | The graduates — the institution's living output |
| Orphans in the nurseries | ~25 | The current student body |
| Released since opening | 100+ | Six decades of the hardest kind of teaching |
| Daily feedings | 2 — 10:00 and 15:00 | The safety net, served deliberately dull |
| Outdoor nursery opened | 2014 | When the public first saw forest school itself |
| Entrance fees | RM2–RM30 + RM10 camera | Public-policy pricing; cash only |
| Figure | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve | 4,294 ha (43 km²) | Campus, classroom and graduation venue in one |
| Protected since | 1931 | Three decades before anyone needed it for orangutans |
| Designation | Important Bird Area | BirdLife International listing; 300+ species around the trails |
| From Sandakan Airport / city | 11 km / 25 km | 20 and 40 minutes respectively — routes |
| Figure | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Sun Bear Centre founded | 2008, by Wong Siew Te | Sepilok's model, exported across the road |
| Rescued sun bears in care | 42 (2025) | The world's smallest bear, in the world's biggest bear rescue |
| Sun Bear Centre visitors, 2024 | 79,362 | The paying public funding the model, measurably |
| RDC canopy walkway | 347 m long, 25 m high | Hornbill height, engineering included |
| Bird species around the RDC | 300+ | Including the Bornean bristlehead birders cross oceans for |
Figures compiled from Sabah Wildlife Department published information, the Sabah Tourism Board, Orangutan Appeal UK, and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, rechecked September 2026. Population figures (60–80 free-living, ~25 orphans) are the ranges the centre's own materials use — wild-living animals resist precise headcounts, which is rather the point of the whole enterprise.
Found a discrepancy? Tell us and we'll chase it down — this page exists to be the version that's right.
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