Pioneering Orangutan Pries First Hunting Tool Ever Out of Heston's Cold Dead Hands

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Pioneering Orangutan Pries First Hunting Tool Ever Out of Heston's Cold Dead Hands

Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 4:00 PM on April 28, 2008

Hide the china, bananas, children—whatever. I guess it doesn't really matter, because for the first time ever an orangutan was spotted in the wild using a gadget to hunt. In this case the tool was a spear, and the intrepid primate apparently picked up the skill by watching locals fish with spears along the Gohong River in Borneo, on the island of Kaja.

Lucky for we homo sapiens, this orangutan was not as skilled as the fishermen, and could only snare fish that were hooked on fishing lines. Orangutans are incredible masters of mimicry, however, so you know it's only a matter of time before Charlton Heston himself will have to fight his way back from the abyss to save us all. [Daily Mail via The Drawn Cutlass via Neatorama]

Tags: history | hunting | spears

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)

Richard Zimmerman

Posted April 30, 2008 7:49 AM

The orangutan pictured is just one of hundreds living at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, which is operated by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation in Borneo (Indonesia).

Kaja is a small island in the middle of the Rongan River where several dozen orangutans are living until they can be released back into a safe section of the rainforest. The problem is that due to the unchecked spreading of palm oil plantations, the forest is being cut down and orangutans are being slaughtered. This orangutan, like the 650 others at Nyaru Menteng, is an orphan. He watched as his mother was murdered and his forest home was destroyed.

You can see him and the others on the series “Orangutan Island’ on Animal Planet.

Because of deforestation by the palm oil industry, orangutans are predicted to be extinct in the wild in less than 10 years. To learn more about orangutans and how to help them, please visit the Orangutan Outreach website at redapes.org.

Thanks, Rich

Richard Zimmerman
Director, Orangutan Outreach
http://redapes.org
Reach out and save the orangutans!

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