Oook?

Last Friday a colleague organised for a group of us from work to meet with programs staff at Melbourne Zoo to see the new orang-utan enclosure.

There are two enclosures - one family unit (mum, three year old and a big daddy) and one with two females. The three year old is pictured here on the left, followed by the big male, and then one of the females in the second enclosure. These classy pics were taken using my phone so aren't the best quality!

Apparently no orang-utan enclosure has ever been built that they haven't gotten out from (just because they can, not out of misery). At Melbourne Zoo, so far so good, but it is still early days. The mum has made a few attempts, so changes are still being made to the enclosure to keep it secure as she keeps experimenting.

There is something absolutely amazing about getting up really close to any animal at a zoo, especially one who is staring back and probably finding you just as interesting to look at (actually I felt a little like I was making a social faux pas staring so intently at something so human, but then they were staring back so I figured it was OK).

Most of the orang-utans came up to the glass to stare back at us, especially the big male. He was most interested in the kids looking in, and put his hands up around his face to cut out the glare so that he could see better. He sat and stared for a while, breathing on the glass occasionally and fogging it up, before moving on. I felt like we had been assessed and found no longer interesting. Much to our disappointment as we couldn't get enough of him!

I was put in mind of the Librarian in the Discworld novels and could just imagine this big fella swinging from bookshelves with small cries of 'Ook'.

One of the females was chewing a piece of plastic that she had pinched from somewhere. The keeper was having difficulty convincing her to give it up (too good a toy apparently) and was trying to think of something he could swap her for it. You can see the bit of plastic in her mouth in this pic which she showed off from time to time. You can also see my cute pink phone - hurrah!

Following taking this photo I put my hand up to the glass to say hello. She thought I was trying to pinch the plastic so hit the glass to shoo me away and then ambled off.

There are also some siamangs who share the enclosures. When they were introduced they all got on famously and played lots of games of chasey. Because the siamangs are so much smaller and faster it wasn't really a fair game. I'm told that the big male had sore muscles the next day because he really isn't used to much exercise (I totally feel his pain).

By the end of our trip (we also went to see the elephants, so fabulous!) every single one of us was wishing we worked at the zoo.