This is a pretty interesting story. Amazing creatures.
Just read that, impressive stuff - wound healed/ closed in 5 days. I know adult humans with less ability.
Yep. Basically created an antibac to cleanse the wound then created a poultice for it... and they are likely to be extinct in the wild in the years to come. What a bloody travesty.
I visited Chester zoo years ago, before the new environments had been built. I waved to one of the oranutangs. He waved back. He looked sad. They are intelligent creatures who's name translates as 'Old man of the forest' I believe.
Slightly on a tangent but I think they've always been considered as the most intelligent of the great apes, hence their fitting role in Planet of the Apes!
Lots of animals seem to be under estimated. The dogs that talk with recorded buttons are amazing.
This orangutan taking care of business better than some people, reminds me of the rangers response about the overlap in human and bear intelligence when asked why bear bins were so difficult to open.
I can sit for ages at Chester Zoo watching them. Wonderful animals. A mother once brought her baby right up to the glass when I was sat watching them. I placed my hand on the pane and she did the same. It made me cry and is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. What’s happening to them in their natural habitat is a ****ing travesty. Humans are a set of utter bastards.
The Descent of Man
They fall from the trees with the greatest of ease;
Orang utans have elbows for knees.
Crashing through branches, via branchlets and twigs,
Swinging from vines by opposable toes
While flailing at creepers and strangling figs,
One starts to descend as it rambling rose
Hand over foot over foot over foot over hand,
With none of the grace of a sycamore seed,
Riding a trunk like a surfer on speed
It plummets to earth and comes into land.
But once on the ground, an improbable hulk,
It shuffles along with its fingers spread out,
Reverts to a knuckle, a shamble, a sulk
Then squats on a rock and glares all about.
Out of its depth and a bag full of woes,
A grounded orang’s like a sea turtle beached,
Adrift on the earth like a submarine breached
And caught on a rock with its head in its toes.
Bound to the ground with a bearing that’s pained
Like that of a raven whose feathers are clipped
And locked to the land like Andromeda chained
Awaiting her hero’s return from the crypt
Of the foul witch Medusa who turned men to stone
Like our silent orang who has moved not an inch.
Lost to the world like an orange-haired Grinch,
With arms clasped to chest he sits all alone
‘Til suddenly stirred our orang utan stands
And reaches above to take hold of a vine.
Shifting his weight his feet become hands
Once again in a mockery of the human design
And hand over foot over foot over hand
His steady ascent is described by the sound
Of the breaking of branches by movements unplanned.
Our primitive cousin renounces the ground
And climbs through the trees with the greatest of ease.
Orang utans have elbows for knees.
but I think they’ve always been considered as the most intelligent of the great apes
Well, I guess it depends on your inclusion of certain other 'great apes' I guess. 😉 I think there's some evidence that they're the only non-hominid ape that can 'talk' in the past tense. Researchers at St. Andrews conducted some experiments using the keepers at a zoo dressed as predators (tigers suits), and observed some of the orang-utangs vocalising warnings to other orang-utans some minutes after the tigers had gone away, suggesting that they were warning others that there may still be tigers in the area, or perhaps even communicating "Hey, did you see that really weird looking tiger earlier?" although that may be pushing it a bit.
Still, smart animals
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3077439
In the wild, groups of orangutans share distinct “tricks of the trade” for feeding, nesting and communicating, and scientists say these behaviors represent humanlike culture. The discovery offers tantalizing new clues about our own evolution...
The Ascent of Culture
Orang utans share culture, it’s been found,
And different groups will follow different trends.
Great apes, it seems, are quick to ape those friends
Who innovate: behaviour’s passed around
The use of sticks to breach a termite mound,
A bunch of leaves to form a hankerchief
And ways to open fruit with just one’s teeth
Or fell a tree and crash it to the ground.
These shows of strength and skill determine who
Will mate, and tribes will thrive by what they share.
As labels, signals, skills and symbols take
On life, we take what’s borrowed, old or blue
And make it new. So song and dance declare
We are but apes for all the noise we make.
observed some of the orang-utangs vocalising warnings to other orang-utans some minutes after the tigers had gone away,
I have seen it claimed on QI that prairie dogs/gophers through their warning calls vocalise complex descriptions of perceived threats.
Apparently when they see a human approaching not only will they tell their mates that a human is approaching but also what colour shirt they might be wearing and how tall they are.
I completely fail to understand the benefits of a gopher conversation that goes along the lines of "'ere, I can see tall human approaching....... what colour shirt is he wearing Dave?"
Am I the only one wondering what this plant is?
That was my first thought also. One would assume that either it's something which is already known to us for its properties, or someone somewhere should be conducting some research to find out.
If that's not the case then the story is little more than "animal rubs plant on face, wound gets better" with nothing to suggest causality. If we're asserting that the orangutan had prior knowledge then the answer to the question "how?" would be interesting.
@ernielynch Ah, I think it’s had an update since I read it earlier! Thanks!
I can sit for ages at Chester Zoo watching them. Wonderful animals. A mother once brought her baby right up to the glass when I was sat watching them. I placed my hand on the pane and she did the same. It made me cry and is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. What’s happening to them in their natural habitat is a **** travesty. Humans are a set of utter bastards.
You're the orangutan, right?
I was a little surprised by the surprise. I understand that this is the first time they have seen an orangutan apply a poultice but they are frequently observed eating particular plants when they have stomach complaints or rubbing other leaves onto their skin where there are irritants.
I guess it is just because they are using a particular known leave in the same way a human might so it must be amazing. Eating specific leave and rubbing other leaves on them is just being clever monkeys*
Their very intelligent in their problem solving and ability to learn. tHis is probably how they worked out which leaves do what, and then taught the rest of the family so it gets passed down the generations. I seem to remember something about them being the only apes that were taught to use sign language which then went on to learn to lie to their keepers. Not sure if that is right but I seem to remember that they would say they were sick or needed the toilet when they were asked to do stuff they didn't want to do.
*Yes, I know they are not monkeys
I think that might have been gorillas WCA, or possibly chimpanzees. Orangutans are unique among primates for being mostly solitary so I doubt that they are particularly talkative to their keepers, verbally or using sign language.
To make the point how primates differ in their social interactions I once heard it suggested that the best way to torture a human was to put them in solitary confinement whilst the best way to torture an orangutan was to send them to a cocktail party. Possibly an exaggeration but they do like their own personal space.
I imagine chips and dips would be rather frustrating for an orangutan, not to mention a cocktail
I read recently that apes were capable of deception, various examples were given including infidelity and when spotting tasty leaves or fruit that they did not wish to share. It was quite interesting the lengths they would go to to deceive
ernielynch
Full Member
These were a documentary on some years ago about Koko. There was some sort of controversy but I can't remember what it was? It doesn't diminish the incredible intelligence and empathy she had, I just can't remember what it was about but it concerned the humans, not the gorilla.
