Spotlight Sumatra

Sumatra is an incredibly special island. The Gunung Leuser National Park in the north is the only place in the world where orangutans, elephants, rhinos and tigers all coexist.

Spotlight Sumatra is a celebration of the breathtaking array of life found in the island’s unique rainforests, and a call to action to collectively do all that we can to save this fragile ecosystem, the last stronghold for many critically endangered species.

Wildlife photographer Craig Jones will be travelling to Sumatra in September 2012, capturing images which will help us show the world all that there is to lose if we don’t act now to protect Sumatra’s forests. This is the first of Craig’s guest blogs, as he prepares for the trip of a lifetime into the Sumatran rainforest.

I will be travelling to the island of Sumatra in mid September for two weeks. Alongside my guides, we will venture deep into the jungles for up to three or four days at a time, even longer if we are lucky, to track and photograph wild Sumatran orangutans. Jungle life will be basic but great, trekking by day and sleeping in hammocks by night. I have many ideas and plans for different images and photographs, that SOS can use to help raise awareness of the plight of this Great Ape – maybe the first Great Ape to become extinct should current trends continue in the destruction of their forest homes.

With many tour operators, photographers and members of the public venturing to the island of Borneo to see and photograph orangutans, I was shocked that very few people go to Sumatra. I hope to show the world Sumatra needs help just as much in saving its rainforests as the neighbouring island of Borneo.

Only 6600 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild. Most of these depend on the rainforest habitat provided by the Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra for their survival. Removal of illegal palm oil plantations, replanting and guarding the orangutans’ home territory along with education and public information campaigns are carried out by the Sumatran Orangutan Society and their partners in Sumatra, the Orangutan Information Centre.

SOS is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their forest home and their work is helping to protect and conserve this area for the future. I first saw one of these amazing animals in the year 2000 in a rehabilitation centre in Thailand, where I saw a male orangutan, an experience that touched deep into my soul, as I watched and looked into the eyes of one of our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom.

This has stayed with me until the present day and now I am trying to help in my own way by using my photography to help SOS, in turn helping this animal. The principal focus of my trip will be the orangutan, capturing them within their natural habitat, looking for behaviours to capture and so on. I will be capturing some beautiful photographs of these animals, alongside images showing their rainforest home. I will visit some of the most magnificent forests on Earth, which are also the domain of many other beautiful and stunning animals and birds, some of which only live in this part of the world and nowhere else on the planet. I will be using my tracking skills and fieldcraft, camouflage and jungle survival, having spent some time in these environments previously as a member of the armed forces.

I will be reporting back once I reach the few places where there is internet access, and you’ll be able to read my updates from the field on this SOS blog. I will be capturing images of SOS and OIC’s different projects but on the whole my time will be spent in the jungle, listening and watching for clues of what wildlife is around us. I am looking forward to meeting and working with the locals there, whose knowledge of these jungles is second to none and without whose skills it would take me much longer to navigate this landscape.

I cannot wait to wake up to hear the sights and sounds of the jungle, the calls, the noise, the smells… It’s going to be an amazing two week adventure where I hope to capture the beauty of this animal with my lens, which is controlled with my heart and eyes. I will be getting involved also helping the locals, I will be presenting some short films and slideshows showing them wildlife outside of Sumatra. A lot of people will not have ventured outside of their native country but it’s my aim to bring wildlife to them during the time I am there using a small bicycle-powered cinema which is used for educational talks and film screenings.

The sole aim of this trip is to highlight the plight of this most beautiful of apes. I will be showing you the kit I’m taking, clothing and equipment, posting live updates and hopefully transporting you to this rarely visited part of the world.

We will soon be adding more details about special Spotlight Sumatra events and initiatives – watch this space!

Welcoming our new Patron: Suzi Eszterhas

We are proud to announce award-winning wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas as our new Patron. Suzi specialises in documenting the family life of wild animals, and you’ll recognise many of her gorgeous orangutan photos from the SOS website! She has won many awards, including in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Talking about her support for SOS, Suzi said:

“I’m thrilled to be a Patron of the Sumatran Orangutan Society. It is one of those small, grassroots charities that I really believe in. They are doing real work on the ground that I have witnessed with my own eyes. I am so impressed by the organisation’s ability to use its resources wisely and have such a broad reach.”

Thank you for your kind words Suzi! We were first introduced when Suzi was planning a trip to Sumatra to photograph orangutans in the Gunung Leuser National Park in 2010 – and she has been a supporter of the charity ever since, providing stunning images to help promote the cause and spreading the word about our work at every opportunity.

Orangutan conservation is a cause that is very close to Suzi’s heart:

 “I can’t imagine not wanting to save Sumatran orangutans. As one of the world’s most critically endangered great apes, they are a species that conservationists should target. What is happening to their habitat as we speak is so appalling; I just have to do something to stop it…I have no idea how someone could be passionate about wildlife photography and not desperately want to protect the species and habitats they photograph.”

The first orangutan Suzi ever saw and photographed in the wild was a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) – a species that is distinct from the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). It was a memorable experience:

“It was a young sub-adult male sitting quietly, high in a tree. I remember his beautiful reddish fur being beautifully back-lit in the morning sun. He spent a lot of time gazing off into the forest and there was such a profound look in his eyes. I don’t want to sound too anthropomorphic, but I really think there were some incredibly deep thoughts floating around in his mind.”

We’re delighted to welcome Suzi as Patron of SOS. Her stunning images combined with her knowledge and passion for conservation make her a wonderful ambassador for the charity. SOS works hard to secure a brighter future for the Sumatran orangutan, and having Suzi on the team will help us raise awareness of the threats facing this critically endangered species, and our work to protect them.

Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered and without urgent action could be the first Great Ape species to become extinct. SOS is determined to turn this situation around through a combination of rainforest restoration, community-led conservation, and campaigning.  To find out how you can support SOS in its work to protect vital orangutan habitat please visit www.orangutans-sos.org/help

Find out more about Suzi and view her stunning portfolio of wildlife images from around the world at: http://www.suzieszterhas.com/