Orangutan Leans Forward To Give Baby A Kiss

Jan 04, 2021 by apost team

Going to the zoo is an experience filled with education and wonder. Parents love to take the whole family to the zoo so the children can experience the beautiful sights that are available. Particularly large zoos house a vast array of creatures, sometimes including orangutans. Orangutans are extremely impressive creatures that are capable of a lot more than most people suspect.

Orangutans are curious members of the ape family. People often think of them as being stoic and aloof. Maybe that's because they look a little older than other apes, and they weren't portrayed with much flattery in the original Planet of the Apes series.

Once people see how orangutans act in the wild and at zoos, perceptions may change.

Orangutans can be spotted either in packs or wandering all one. Both of these habitats are normal, as the orangutan can adjust and thrive in a number of different settings. In addition, they are the two strictly Asian species of extant great apes.

They can be very interactive with one another, communicating by making sounds that they understand. These wonderful creatures have even been known to blow raspberries!

The particular orangutan in this video happened to single out a very special guest and show that orangutans can be affectionate too. It was a casual day at the Denver Zoo, and the Ray family was strolling through for a quality visit. At a certain point, the family made their way over to the orangutan exhibit. They took an interest, and the mother of the family stepped up close to the glass so her young boy, baby Cason, could get a better look.

She couldn't believe what happened next.

The orangutan had been swinging on a rope in the exhibit and swung up extremely close to the glass window. Then, out of nowhere, the animal gave the baby boy, who was just six months old at the time, a kiss through the glass.

It did not even stop after one, offering the little boy several heartfelt kisses. Mom and dad were lucky enough to record the interaction, and this adorable moment has been going viral ever since. Since its posting in April 2016, the video has garnered more than eight million views. 

According to the description in the original video, the orangutan in question is named Junie. He is originally from Sumatra and he transferred from Zoo Atlanta to Denver Zoo due to the latter’s successful work in caring for orangutans with chronic respiratory disease. “Denver Zoo staff are committed to providing Junie with the level of care he needs every day to make sure that he is as comfortable and healthy as possible,” the description read.

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Some people expressed their concern in the comments about the size of Junie’s enclosure, saying that it is too small for him. So Cason’s dad, John Ray, made a follow-up video two years later to show the rest of the area in Denver Zoo which the orangutans have access to. “They have a very large area inside,” John says while showing a wider shot of Junie’s enclosure. “And the outside area that they have access to is even larger.” He added that the enclosure was equipped with enrichment toys and things for the apes to climb and play on. John hoped that showing more of the orangutan enclosure would give viewers a better peace of mind, especially those who worried that the animals were confined to tiny cells.

Orangutans and viral Internet videos

Orangutans are no strangers to making headlines for the very human-like things that they do. After all, the apes share 97% of their DNA with us, humans, according to the National Institutes of Health.

In 2015, a Dan Zaleski from Meriden, Connecticut, showed an orangutan a simple magic trick at a zoo in Barcelona, Spain. The video opens with Zaleski showing the orangutan an empty cup and lowering a seed pod into it. The great ape watches intently. After shaking the cup and discreetly getting rid of the pod, he shows the orangutan the now empty cup to which the primate reacts by literally rolling on the floor laughing. Since it got posted to Zaleski’s YouTube channel in December 2015, the video has amassed a whopping 97 million views.

But perhaps the most apt viral orangutan video right now is one of Sandra from the Center For Great Apes in Florida. Sandra, who is considered a senior orangutan at almost 35 years old, made headlines when a video of her scrubbing her hands was posted back in March 2020 circulated the Internet, around the same time the coronavirus pandemic started.

Sitting in her comfortable habitat, Sandra is seen with her blue soapy-water bucket in the yard. Armed with her own scrub brush, Sandra carefully washes each hand. Both sides of each hand. Each finger! She turns over each hand, looks at her fingernails, and scrubs each side of each hand. She does all this very simply, without fanfare, as if it's the most normal thing in the world.

She has noticed the careful attention that her caregivers are giving to their hand-washing routines. Sandra has not only watched, but she's learned, and she seems to have learned well. She is a great example to follow, especially in these times.

Facts about orangutans

If it is not already clear, orangutans are highly intelligent creatures. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, Sumatran orangutans, in particular, have been known to use tools like sticks and to get food which prove slightly tricky to reach just with their hands, like termites, ants, or bees out of tree holes. They have also been seen making “gloves” out of leaves to protect their hands and feet when handling thorny branches or fruits, like durian, which are commonly found in Sumatra.

Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are the only of the Great Apes that hail solely from Asia. Unfortunately, these monkey magic fans are nearly extinct, with experts estimating only about 100,000 remain in the wild.

As you can see in the video, orangutans are capable of being loving and affectionate creatures. Just look at how this orangutan at the zoo offers a young boy some adorable smooches! Be sure to show this video to family and friends so they can also experience how adorable it is.