Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh | |
---|---|
Directed by | Harun Rahman Lara Ariffin |
Written by | Kathryn Pasternak |
Produced by | Lara Ariffin Lina Teoh Sabrina Chen-Louie Effa Desa |
Starring | Michelle Yeoh |
Cinematography | Brad Dillon, Harun Rahman, Wong Chin Hor |
Edited by | Daniel Sheire |
Music by | Farul Farid |
Production company | Novista |
Release date |
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Running time | 50 minutes |
Countries | Malaysia United States |
Language | English |
Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh is a 2009 documentary film made by National Geographic in cooperation with FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia). [1] The film is notable for showing how the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre (also known as Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary) in Sabah is fighting for the survival and well-being of each ape. The film was broadcast internationally and presented at the Eco-Knights Film Festival 2011. [2]
In the documentary, Michelle Yeoh visits her adopted orangutan in her home country Malaysia [3] and studies for three weeks [4] what is done to sustain the long-term population of this endangered species. Guided by Dr Cecilia Boklin, Yeoh takes part in all activities; she is filmed nurturing an orphaned suckling orangutan. [5]
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species. From 1996, they were divided into two species: the Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran orangutan. A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan, was identified definitively in 2017. The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago.
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films in Hong Kong, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in Hong Kong action films where she performed her own stunts. These roles include Yes, Madam (1985); Magnificent Warriors (1987); Police Story 3: Supercop (1992); The Heroic Trio (1993); and Holy Weapon (1993).
Birutė Marija Filomena Galdikas or Birutė Mary Galdikas, OC, is a Lithuanian-Canadian anthropologist, primatologist, conservationist, ethologist, and author. She is a professor at Simon Fraser University. In the field of primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans. Prior to her field study of orangutans, scientists knew little about the species.
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is located about 25 kilometres west of Sandakan in the state of Sabah, Malaysia.
The Sumatran orangutan is one of the three species of orangutans. Critically endangered, and found only in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, it is rarer than the Bornean orangutan but more common than the recently identified Tapanuli orangutan, also found in Sumatra. Its common name is based on two separate local words, "orang" and "hutan" ("forest"), derived from Malay, and translates as 'person of the forest'.
Ah Meng was a female Sumatran orangutan and a tourism icon of Singapore. Ah Meng was originally from Indonesia and was kept illegally in Singapore as a domestic pet before being recovered by a veterinarian in 1971. She was then eleven years old and was given a home at the Singapore Zoo.
Wildlife rehabilitation is the treatment and care of injured, orphaned, or sick wild animals so that they can be released back to the wild.
The Bornean orangutan is a species of orangutan endemic to the island of Borneo. Together with the Sumatran orangutan and Tapanuli orangutan, it belongs to the only genus of great apes native to Asia. It is the largest of the three species of orangutans. Like the other great apes, orangutans are highly intelligent, displaying tool use and distinct cultural patterns in the wild. Orangutans share approximately 97% of their DNA with humans. Also called mias by the local population, the Bornean orangutan is a critically endangered species, with deforestation, palm oil plantations, and hunting posing a serious threat to its continued existence.
Francine Néago is a French campaigner for orangutan conservation, and the founder of a wildlife sanctuary in Indonesia. Ester Kerr wrote a children's book based on Néago's manuscripts on her adventurous life with animals.
Going Ape! is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Jeremy Joe Kronsberg and produced by Paramount Pictures. The original music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. This film starred Tony Danza as Foster, Stacey Nelkin as Cynthia, Jessica Walter as Fiona, Danny DeVito as Lazlo, and three orangutans.
Margaret Lim Hui Lian was a Malaysian-born Canadian children's book author. Her children's books are based on recollections of her own childhood, which she spent with the native people deep in the interior of Sarawak on the Island of Borneo. All her books are illustrated by her daughter Su Jen Buchheim, and published by her own company Fairy Bird Children's Books.
Lone Drøscher Nielsen is a Danish wildlife conservationist who established the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia in 1998.
Bukit Tigapuluh National Park - The Thirty Hills - is a 143,223 hectare National Park in eastern Sumatra, consisting primarily of tropical lowland forest, largely in Riau province, with a smaller part of 33,000 ha in Jambi province. It is famous as one of the last refuges of endangered species such as the Sumatran orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran elephant, and Asian tapir, as well as many endangered bird species. It forms part of the Tesso Nilo Complex biodiversity hotspot. The Park is inhabited by the indigenous peoples of the Orang Rimba and Talang Mamak tribes.
Orangutan Diaries is a nature documentary series on the BBC, which follows the lives of Bornean orangutans in the care of Lone Drøscher Nielsen, a member of the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) foundation. The program tries to detail the threat that the orangutans face in day-to-day life. The presenters Michaela Strachan and Steve Leonard follow the careers of the orangutans daily to see what the centre has to deal with.
The Disenchanted Forest is a 1999 documentary film that follows endangered orphan orangutans on the island of Borneo as they are rehabilitated and returned to their rainforest home. It centres on the three main Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) projects - Wanariset, Nyaru Menteng and Mawas. It is narrated by Brooke Shields.
Anne E. Russon is a Canadian psychologist and primatologist. She is a researcher and Professor of Psychology at Glendon College, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada whose research focuses on learning and intelligence in ex-captive Bornean orangutans. Russon is widely published in the fields of primate behavior and ecology, is executive director of the Borneo Orangutan Society of Canada, and is the author of several popular press books dealing with Great Apes including Orangutans: Wizards of the Rainforest, Reaching into Thought: The Minds of the Great Apes, and The Evolution of Thought: Evolution of Great Ape Intelligence.
The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is a wildlife conservation and research centre for improving animal welfare and rehabilitation of the Malayan sun bear. It also aims to raise public awareness about the plight of the sun bears and to raise conservation awareness about this species.
Barbara Harrisson was a German-British art historian who also contributed scientifically to nature conservation, primatology, anthropology, and archaeology.
A hybrid orangutan or cocktail orangutan is usually an orangutan derived from interbreeding between any of the three Orangutan species: Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli, but the term "hybrid orangutan" could also refer to hybrids of the three known Bornean subspecies. As of 2015, there are approximately 134 living Bornean x Sumatran hybrid orangutans in captivity.
There are three species of orangutan. The Bornean orangutan, the most common, can be found in Kalimantan, Indonesia and Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia. The Sumatran orangutan and the Tapanuli orangutan are both only found in Sumatra, Indonesia. The conservation status of all three of these species is critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.