BATANG Ai has a national park that is also home to the orang utan. The 60,000ha park adjoins the 180,000ha Lanjak-Entimau wildlife sanctuary where there are about 2,000 orang utan. Lanjak-Entimau covers Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu and Kapit Divisions.
Gazetted in 1991, the Batang Ai national park has become increasingly popular with locals and tourists.
Apart from orang utans, other primates roaming the park are the Bornean gibbons, long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques and the nocturnal western tarsier.
The animals there include the rare and elusive clouded leopard, two species of civet cat, sun bears, bearded pigs, barking deer, sambar deer, mouse deer, martens, weasels, otters, porcupines and giant squirrels, as well as a host of smaller squirrels, other rodents and tree shrews.
Five of Sarawak's eight hornbill species can also be found in Batang Ai, including the spectacular rhinoceros hornbill, the state bird. This park is also a water catchment area to Sarawak's only artificial lake.
(Source: New Strait Times)
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