HE braved the jungles and got bitten by leeches – all in the name of research for a documentary-thriller series featuring endangered species.

It was, as Mr Jason Lai of Oak3 Films put it, his “own little Amazing Race”.

In the space of two weeks, the producer trekked through various remote locations in Southeast Asia in search of orang utans, to find out if this species so close to humans is also, sadly, close to extinction.

Mr Lai is the executive producer of Oak3 Films overseeing the production of Extinctions, a groundbreaking six-part documentary that involves Singapore, France, Canada and Brazil. 

Not only is this a four-way co-production, but the cross-platform property will also be delivered via various media, including global television, video-on-demand, mobile phones, books and user-generated content through a dedicated Internet channel.

Each episode will introduce viewers to one endangered species – from the orang utan to polar bear – and the different issues that can lead them to extinction.

Oak3 Films is in charge of producing the episodes on the Asian elephant, orang utan and tiger, while its French counterpart Frederic Lepage Concepts is handling the episodes on the jaguar, cheetah and polar bear.

His recce trip last December took him to central and east Kalimantan on the island of Borneo (Indonesia), Sabah in East Malaysia, as well as the other Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java.

In that two weeks, he tried to unearth research and findings from people at the forefront of orang-utan conservation, and even followed a story thread of orang utans cannibalising their dead infants.

His adventure started in Sandakan, Sabah, where he visited an orang utan rehabilitation centre at Sepilok. The centre was started in 1964 to rescue orphaned baby orang utans from logging sites, plantations and illegal poaching.

To get in, Mr Lai had to go through a medical checkup, to ensure that he was not carrying any disease which might be transmitted to the orang utans.

“Since humans and apes are genetically so close to each other, diseases may be transmitted from us to them and vice versa,” he explained. “I was lucky to get a clean bill of health from the doctor and was able to continue with my ‘Borneo Amazing Race’.”

During his treks through the rainforests, he encountered leeches so many it seemed they were falling from the sky.

It was impossible not to be bitten, he recalled. “But I was lucky to have spotted them early before they could sink their teeth into my skin and suck me dry of my blood.”

Leeches aside, he found the rainforest walks to be really enjoyable.

“It was rewarding whenever I spotted many semi-wild orang utans in an area. I also met many wonderful people during my trip.”

For Mr Lai’s final stop in Sumatra, he had to travel for five hours on land to get from Medan to Bukit Lewang.

Bukit Lewang is part of a protected area in the Gunung Leuser National Park, a popular site for tourists keen to see wild orang utans. Mr Lai was again rewarded during his treks, this time with the sightings of four orang utans during his two-day stay.

With filming now underway, the producer is also looking at possible locations in Singapore, Java, Sumatra, Thailand and China to film the next episode on the tiger. Shooting on the Asian elephant has already been completed last year, in Laos and Thailand.

“As the executive producer for the project, I am very hands-on in the content for the episodes,” said Mr Lai, adding that all 15 staff members from Oak3 Films are also involved, from the directors and editors to the sound man and writers.

Even though Extinctions involves four continents, and has an international crew working on it, language has not been a problem for the production teams from the different countries as English was the main language used, he added.

“We plan to complete production and post-production of Extinctions within a year and hopefully release it by end of this year or early next year.”

Extinctions will first be shown in France before it is released in the international market.