This Orangutan Mother Helps Her Baby Learn New Skills

This 8-month-old orangutan is entering a prime stage of discovery.

Transcript

00:00So this morning we're out in front of the orangutan exhibit here at the San Diego Zoo

00:08and we're trying to get some great footage of our young Sumatran orang, Aisha.

00:13Aisha is almost eight and a half months old.

00:16We're seeing a lot of behaviors with her.

00:18She's always been very curious about her surroundings and very observant

00:23and she is trying all sorts of food, anything that she can put in her mouth, she's definitely trying it out.

00:29So that's a good thing.

00:31But yeah, mom is now allowing her to take some of the fruit.

00:34Fruit is a very favorite food item so a lot of times mom wasn't sharing but now mom is sharing.

00:40Today on exhibit the orangutans got bamboo and jello in the bamboo.

00:47This allows the orangutans to tool use and use their enrichment for a longer period of time

00:53and Inda definitely likes it.

00:55They'll use sticks to grab and get the bamboo out and this is a great learning experience for the baby also.

01:02She'll be watching mom.

01:04As she gets older, mom will start actively teaching her.

01:12Inda will swing horizontally on the rope.

01:16She is really the only orangutan I've seen do that so it is a behavior that she really likes.

01:21So it definitely looks like she's rocking her.

01:23So it'll be interesting to see when Aisha gets older if she'll do that same behavior that she learned from mom.

01:28It'll be interesting to see if she likes it and becomes an adult that does it too.

01:31We will see Aisha leave mom on her own and climb around the ropes and climbing structure on her own

01:37and then other times we'll see mom place the baby into the hammock or physically try and put the baby away from her

01:45and that could be a couple of things.

01:47It could be that mom wants her to have more time climbing around and building those muscles

01:52and gaining strength and confidence

01:54and it could just be that mom wants some alone time and it's hot and she doesn't want a baby clinging to her.

02:00So it's all kind of just up for interpretation of why she's doing it, but both reasons are very valid reasons.

02:09So we're all very excited to see Aisha grow and develop, but it'll be a slow process.

02:14Orangutan babies do stay with their moms almost exclusively for three to four years

02:20before they really even start venturing and up to eight years

02:23before they leave their mom, so it'll be a very slow process.