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The Gunung Palung National Park is located in and around the Gunung Palung and Gunung Panti mountains in West Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia. This 90,000 hectare park is comprised of a diverse flora representing nearly every type of vegetation in Borneo, including beach and mangrove forests, peat and freshwater swamp forests, and endangered lowland dipterocarp forests. In addition it is home to a range of rare and endangered animals, including the orangutan.

Deep within the National Park lies Cabang Panti Research Camp, established by Dr. Mark Leighton in 1985. Cabang Panti, encompassing 2100 hectares currently houses a diverse assemblage of research projects including Dr. Cheryl Knott's Gunung Palung Orangutan Project, begun in 1994.

 


Gunung Palung is one of only a handful of long-term research sites for orangutan biology and behavior. We monitor a study population of more than 50 orangutans living in a highly seasonal yet rich habitat. Because the survival and reproduction of these highly endangered animals depends on maintenance of this forest, Gunung Palung is an important site both for scientific researchers from around the world and a host to a multi-faceted conservation program.

 

 

Contact: Dr. Cheryl Knott, Harvard University Department of Anthropology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
knott@fas.harvard.edu