Orangutans just might be our favorite primates. Not only are they super smart, but they really know how to make us laugh, whether they’re playing ukulele or caught washing the laundry. This combination of brainpower and mischief is what makes the animals so loveable and amusing; it’s also what makes them so difficult to keep in a zoo exhibit!
Case in point: two orangutans, Rocky and Knobi, escaped their holding area at the Indianapolis Zoo. Rocky, a 9-year-old male, is known by zoo staff as a prank lover. “He is energetic, extremely playful, needs lots of attention, and can sometimes be a pest,” says Rocky’s online zoo profile.
Upon escaping the enclosure, Rocky decided to dismantle a web camera in the building. Perhaps, he didn’t want his antics to wind up on YouTube, like his hilarious counterparts!
Rocky also brought Knobi, his adoptive mother, as a sidekick on his little escapade. Zoo officials do not know how the adventurous pair escaped their primary containment area, but they don’t seem very surprised that it happened.
“We expected the orangs to have this kind of behavior,” said Karen Burns, spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Zoo. “We know they will test and will find any weak link in the chain.”
“Orangutans, they’re very clever and curious, and we took all of that into consideration when we were designing the exhibit,” added Carla Knapp of the zoo’s PR team. “They’re just really clever, and we know that they’re that clever.”
Zookeepers eventually tracked Rocky and Knobi down and returned them to their enclosure, but not before the mother-son team could have their share of fun and hijinks. Will the dynamic duo escape again? We don’t know, but we’ll keep an eye on that web camera… if Rocky doesn’t destroy it first!
What a blessing they are protected in zoos as they are being annihilated in their homeland — loggers taking down whole forests to plant monocrops of palm oil trees.