Teaching them to leave

21 July 2026Photos and text: Gilles Auroux29 images

01 / 29 · 21 July 2026Gilles Auroux / Collectif DR

In the rainforest of Sabah, in northeastern Borneo, men and women devote their daily lives to repairing broken lives. In Sepilok, the orangutans taken in have lost their mothers, often victims of deforestation or poaching. Too young to survive alone, they must relearn everything: climbing, feeding, being wary, living.

This story offers an immersion at the heart of the center, as close as possible to those who support this slow and fragile reconstruction. Through the eyes of a keeper and a veterinarian, it explores the singular relationship woven between humans and animals, made of both closeness and distance, attachment and letting go. Because here, caring also means preparing for separation. To raise is to learn to step aside. Between daily routines, veterinary care and the first steps toward independence, this patient work reveals the full complexity of rehabilitation: a subtle balance between human intervention and a return to the wild.

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The story

29 images