Anil Prabhakar, a nature photographer and photojournalist, has spoke of his privilege of communicating with Orangutans while photographing them in the wild.
One such incident caught in pictures, occurred while he was trekking through the dense jungle mountains on the island of Borneo, where the majority of the world's Orangutans live. A crew member in his team entered a river where a snake had been spotted. He hoped to clear the snake away as they are dangerous to the apes. However, the man become stuck in the riverbed. Amazingly, a female Orangutan approached and put her hand out for the man to grab and be pulled to safety.
While the man was able to free himself without the Orangutan's help, it was a show of empathy that many believe does not exist in the animal kingdom.
When Prabhakar asked the man why he had not taken the hand of the Orangutan, he stated that he could have accidentally pulled the Orangutan into the river, or the Orangutan could have accidentally hurt him due to its great strength.
Prabhakar said of the story:
"Poisonous snakes are dangerous to orangutans, so they have to take care of those things. So, this fellow started cleaning these bushes all along the river, and it was as if he was moving in slow motion because his legs were getting stuck inside the mud. "Suddenly, this Orangutan came closer to the river banks, sat there and watched what this fellow was doing. When this fellow struggled to pull out his legs, the Orangutan put her left hand on the bank of the river and extended her other hand towards him. It was a lovely gesture."
He added:
"For me, this was completely new. I never expected to see anything like that. In my mind, this Orangutan was trying to help him. It's human nature — if someone is in trouble, you go there and lend a hand."
Prabhakar currently works with the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation whose mission is to save the animals under threat from deforestation and hunting. The photographer said of the organisation's mission:
"This organization rescues orangutans from habitat loss, poachers and those being kept in captivity. They will rescue them and help them get back to the wild. They treat them if they are injured and help with the trauma they've faced. Then they move them to a temporary forest, where they can get used to being wild, and release them to the main forest."
[h/t: The Dodo]
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