I have been watching the shows Orangutan Island and Escape to Chimp Eden on Animal Planet and couldn’t help noticing a difference in demeanor between the two types of apes. The orangutans seem affectionate and outgoing to Lone Dröscher Nielsen, the manager of the project, and to the teknisi who bring food to them and perform health checks. On the other hand, the chimps on Chimp Eden live up to their reputation as unpredictable and occasionally hostile towards humans. I know both types of apes possess great strength and could easily injure or kill a human being. Are the orangutans docile because they’ve had years of nurturing and look upon “their” humans almost as if they were their mothers? On Chimp Eden, so far, Eugene Cussons has had to deal with abused and neglected chimps, but even at his sanctuary, he admits he needs to be wary around his chimps, even though they have bonded with him and accept him as a trusted human being. I realize that in neither case can the apes be classified as truly “wild.” I also realize that in the wild, the two apes have vastly different social structures. The chimps live in troops, and the orangs are naturally solitary animals. But on the whole, are orangutans by nature more docile and gentle around human beings than chimps are?
Well chimps live in a group while orangutans are solitary so that probably would have a lot to do with it. You will notice a dog, even a friendly one, gets much more unpredictable once you put him in a park with a lot of other dogs. The dogs form bands.
I realize that. I allowed for the differences. The orangutans on “Orangutan Island” don’t live a natural solitary existence, however. They live in an unnatural social group. However, they do seem to be more adaptable and docile than chimpanzees do. The keepers do not need to tranquilize them or restrain them in order to move them or treat them for example. When orangutans are moved from the rehabilitation centers to the islands, they are not tranquilized or caged. They come along on the boat docilely. So I wonder, is this natural orang behavior, or are they conditioned since they were raised by humans in a nurturing and teaching environment? Or could it even be because they are adolescent orangs who have not reached their sexual maturity?
The orangutans on “Orangutan Island” are all juveniles. Apes really start to become difficult to handle once they become sexually mature, but these aren’t mature yet, even the older ones on the neighboring island.
Are orangutans dangerous to humans? Depends on whether you have any overdue books…
Oook!
That sounds reasonable. After all, we do breed our pet dogs and cats to retain their juvenile characteristics and we spay and neuter them partly to eliminate any negative behaviors due to sexual maturity. It stands to reason that orangutans in the wild would be difficult for humans to handle. In fact, I recall another television program about the Nyaru Menteng project which was called “Growing Up Orangutan.” A wild mother orangutan and her baby were brought into the refuge, with the baby suffering a broken arm. It was necessary to tranquilize the mother orangutan so that they could remove the baby and treat her fractures. After the baby’s fractures had healed, they returned her to her mother. The mother accepted her baby back, but was not producing milk, so they had to return the mother to the wild, as they did not have the resources to safely take care of a mature wild orangutan. They did put the baby in their rehabilitation program so they could teach her survival skills and eventually release her onto one of the islands with other orphaned orangs in her age group. They did have to be cautious around the mother orang while she was in their care.
Kipling wrote a short story on the subject.
Three words: Right Turn Clyde.
And note that when you see a chimp or orangutan in a movie interacting with humans, it is invariably a juvenile. Once they get to be adults an ape’s “acting” career is over. Any time you see a chimp in a movie it has a pink face, they develop dark faces when they become adults. Movie orangutans don’t have the cheek and throat pouches of adult male orangutans either, they’re all juveniles too.
As, of course, did Poe.