Photo safari – Orangutans Part 3

ByEd Yong
April 25, 2010

More shots from Perth Zoo’s wonderful orangutan exhibit. These apes are incredibly intelligent and it would be terrible to let them sit in an enclosure with nothing to stimulate them. So the zoo runs a “behavioural enrichment” programme, which essentially means that they leave plenty of toys, items and challenges to keep the orangutans mentally engaged. Here’s a sequence of a female making use of one such opportunity, and demonstrating the orangutan’s prowess with tools.

Orangutan_tool

She grabs a sturdy stick from the grounds…

FREE BONUS ISSUE

Go Further