Volunteer as an Ape Centre Assistant in beautiful Malaysia providing essential husbandry and enrichment to Orangutans andChimpanzees in this facility that plays an important part breeding endangered species and educating the public and communities on a wide range of conservation issues.

In this structured volunteer programme, you will together with the animal keepers be responsible for the daily maintenance of the animals. Working along side local staff you get a unique behind the scenes exposure and understanding of local conditions. You will have an opportunity to help improve the conditions the apes live in whilst learning about the natural history of species and the cheeky personalities of the individual primates you work with!

Your time may be spent in husbandry, enrichment, construction and educational activities. Husbandry – cleaning cages and feeding – is a necessary daily activity. Hygiene is essential to prevent disease. Volunteers need to be able to clear up animal faeces which can be extremely smelly! Some maintenance work may be necessary and one always has to clean up after enrichment activities.

The idea of enrichment is to stimulate the animals and improve their living conditions to mimic their natural habitat as far as possible. Such as providing leaves for bedding and nesting, buying of specific fruits for dietary purposes, placing of branches to observe behaviour, making variety of fun rope work for the animals, hiding of food to encourage foraging behaviour.

You may be involved with the design and building of small construction projects aimed at improving the night dens or enclosures. Assisting in building new exhibits and extensions to improve the zoo facilities, or improving existing exhibits by adding furniture or painting.

There is an education centre and library at the zoo. Volunteers should learn as much as possible about the animals. You may be asked to guide and talk to school children about them. You may also be asked to prepare displays and information on them.

Your volunteering will contribute to improving the facilities and environment for both the animals and public alike. In Malaysian zoos, the Enrichment Process of keeping animals occupied and entertained is catching up with western standards, however, their conditions are on par with western zoos. Your support, however small it may seems to you, helps facilitate this change process.

Situated on 110 acres of land, the zoo has more than 5,400 individual animals making up more than 470 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.  The zoo's long term objective is to develop into a world-class zoo and is in the midst of making changes to their systems and protocols

Working with local staff encourages one to learn some Malay and to reciprocate by passing on basic  English to them as well.  This process helps communication between staff and volunteers who at times lack the confidence to chat.

During your free time you may want to catch a cheap taxi with a friend or two and go into town for some sightseeing activities, leisurely beach time or enjoy a meal at one of the many local restaurants.  You will find familiar and less familiar foods here.

It is advisable to do some research into animals and their behaviour in the wild before arrival. At the end of the day, the more you put in, the more you are likely to get out of the experience. We greatly appreciate volunteers coming up with new enrichment ideas, just imagine how it will feel, watching an animal with your enrichment and being able to say, "I thought of that".. You must check with the animal keeper or programme facilitator before implementing any activity.

Volunteers may be able to interact with the animals under the supervision of the animal keeper or programme facilitator.  Direct contact is not allowed. Health and safety is paramount at the ape centre and this is taken very seriously. However, in just spending each day with these apes at the centre, you truly start to feel a connection and get to know their individual quirks and to observe their often "naughty" behaviour. Be prepared to leave a little piece of your heart with these cheeky primates.

The volunteer projects have not been initiated solely for the benefit of travellers wishing to be close to wildlife – they are run as a means of generating both interest and vital funds for all the project sites they work on throughout Malaysia. The programmes developed are supported by volunteers or participants whose money, 25% of your fee, funds ongoing conservation projects and indigenous community development. At the same time volunteers get the opportunity to personally contribute to project implementation through a variety of activities.

Achievements / impact