“Smoking Shirley” the orangutan has recently been forced to quit smoking cold-turkey after being taken from a zoo in Malaysia and being brought to the sanctuary of a wildlife center. While at the zoo, Shirley began smoking any cigarettes that were thrown into her enclosure by passers-by, presumably learning this vice by observing their behavior.
In the above clip, an orangutan at the zoo cools itself off via a very human-like method – by wetting a washcloth and placing it on its face.
The inaugural post on Animals Don’t Think, published over a year and a half ago, introduced Suryia the orangutan and Roscoe the dog. The two met on their own accord at an animal sanctuary and quickly became inseparable. Now, the duo are a focus of a new book and have been spotted greeting their adoring fans and signing copies of their story.
Here is a video showcasing their friendship:
When an orangutan at the zoo notices a drowning baby bird, it works to get it out of the water, and after saving it, examines it closely. (Note: the action starts after 1 minute into the clip, and according to the video’s caption, the bird was later checked by zoo staff and found to be unharmed.)
At a refuge in Borneo, orangutans imitate many tool-using behaviors they had seen while captive, and they do so of their own volition.
[Biology Letters] via [AOL News] and [The Guardian]
In the above clip, a young orangutan repeatedly tries to run away from its parent (unsuccessfully).
An orangutan at a zoo in Adelaide, Australia, shorted out wires in her enclosure using sticks and made a ladder with branches as part of an elaborate (and successful) escape strategy.
In a recent study examining apes’ awareness of their knowledge of situations, when apes of different species were directly shown which of two tubes contained a reward, they chose that tube without delay when given the chance to have one, but when apes were unsure which tube held a reward, they examined their options before grabbing their choice.
[Animal Cognition] via [PhysOrg], [image by Josep Call]
Orangutans in a German zoo recently received a new snack machine that required the completion of a series of steps to dispense nuts. Unfortunately for the orangutans, head banging and machine shaking were not part of the dispensing protocol.
[Telegraph], [image by Rex Features]
