Orangutan goes fishing with sharpened stick
In a sight never previously witnessed an orangutan uses a sharpened stick to try and spear fish.
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The hugely powerful creature uses fingers and toes to anchor himself on the branches of a tree overhanging the water.
The male orang lives in a sanctuary on the island of Kaja in Borneo which rescues animals driven out of their traditional rainforest home by loggers and palm oil plantation owners. The great apes, which share 97 per cent of its genes with humans, are routinely slaughtered if they get in the way of workers. Often they are butchered and their meat sold in shops with the animal’s decapitated head used as an adornment. But those lucky enough to be brought to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) are lovingly cared for and nurtured in the hope that can eventually be rehabilitated and returned to the forest. Orangutan translates from the Indonesian into Man of the Forest. The beguiling creatures are great imitators and having seen local people fishing with sticks they are quick to try for themselves. The orangutan used one of the fishermen’s poles to try and spear the fish as they swam by but didn’t quite have the necessary dexterity. Instead he used the stick to hook out fallen fruit as it floated by. Another orang used a fishing stick to pick out fish trapped in lines set by locals. The relentless demand for land for agriculture, the continuing loss of invaluable rainforest and the worsening plight of the orangutans are told in a new book, Thinkers of the Jungle. It tells of the work of Dr Willie Smits who set up a charity in 1991 that evolved into BOS. It warns that unless something is done quickly orangs may disappear from the wild within 10 years.
Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk |
