LAUSR

This is a brief report on my recent trip to Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia in 2019 to see orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and other nonhuman primates (Fig. 1). I first went to see wild orangutans in Sabah, Borneo, in 1999. This article aims to look back on my commitment to the Bornean orangutans over the past 20 years. Geopolitics seems to be not limited to politics, but extends to the academic world as well. European countries have an advantage in the study of nonhuman primates in Africa. They are geographically close to Africa and have long-term relationships with African countries through colonization. North America has an advantage in the study of nonhuman primates in Central and South America. For Japan, it might be valuable to pay more attention to Southeast Asia. Orangutans, great apes of the hominid family, must be a target species of scientific strategy. They live on only two islands, Sumatra and Borneo—in other words, Indonesia and Malaysia. Based on this understanding, I first went to Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia, in the summer of 1999.