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It's well before dawn. We're getting an early start in the hopes of setting up camp deeper in this one.

We can do it across the river in total darkness and then the trek began,

through a rainforest that was starting to wake up.

It was time to set up our tents on a small hill, a rare bit of semi-dry landing,

what seemed like the wettest place in the world.

The well-known humidity of Simarcha was kicking my ass,

and every step I'd had this disorienting feeling I could only see what's right in front of me.

My other senses were set on high alert. I knew that tigers and rhinos and bears were definitely here,

possibly just past the circle of light from my headlamp, as I slipped into sleep I began to dream about tomorrow.

Because with any luck, I'd get to meet my first wild orangutan.

That was a description of a trip I took to the Loser ecosystem of Northern Simarcha in 2013.

I was there to host a PBS nature film called The Last orangutan Eden,

all about the plight of the Simarchan orangutan.

I always refer to them as refugees, because the definition of a refugee is somebody whose homeland is no longer available to them.

That's Dr. Ian Singleton in the film.

He's the conservation director of the SOCP, the Simarchan orangutan conservation program,

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