A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.
It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.
The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.
"Orang hutan" means "forest man" in one of Indonesia's many languages and our long-armed cousins do indeed show a remarkable ability to mimic our behaviour.
This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River.
Although the method required too much skill for him to master, he was later able to improvise by using the pole to catch fish already trapped in the locals' fishing lines.
The image is part of a series taken for a new book, The Thinkers Of The Jungle, which also includes the first photograph of an orangutan swimming.
Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, is published by Ullmann Publishing on May 5.
In an extraordinary coincedence, Sawsee has just posted an article about elephants that paint portraits of themselves at his blog. Another example of our animal friends adapting and exceeding the limits we assumed they had.
Awesome.
Now, we just have to organize an airlift of typewriters to Borneo...
3 comments:
Just like Jin.
Awesome! I missed my calling as a conservationist or activist or something. I think Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees is awe-inspiring. I actually got to meet her once, and it was fantastic. I recently found out that she was speaking at a private school about 5 miles from my house. Of course, I found out AFTER the fact. I was so bummed! Anyway, I believe that she was the first to see chimps using tools, further proving their intelligence. That is a great picture of the orang. We were just studying those in kindergarten today....
Very serendipitous!
I'll have to read that book!
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