“Thief Caught at Camp Leakey”

This charming account of orangutan intelligence and enterprise is excerpted from Pongo Quest (Fall/Winter 1999, magazine of Orangutan Foundation International). Orangutans never swim, but they love to eat flowers from big flowering trees. One of the orangutans in Biruté Galdikas’ sanctuary in Indonesia found a way to cross the river that bounds Camp Leakey so she and her young son could feast on such flowers.

“We had been told that there was a thief on the premises, but we thought the term too harsh. Perhaps ‘borrow’ is more accurate, for Princess never takes the canoe permanently, and only when it is urgently needed. Lured by the tempting white blossoms that cover a glossy-leafed tree across the Sekonyer Kanan River from the Camp, she borrowed the canoe again today

“We saw her purposefully striding down the dock toward Camp, son Pan clutching the hair on her back as he struggled to keep up. Where the swamp becomes land she disappeared under the dock, to reappear with the canoe in tow. Lowering Pan inside, she moved the canoe to the river by pulling herself, hand over hand, along the dock. When she reached the river, she launched the canoe out into the current, paddling with her hands, one side and then the other around the tethered speedboat

“My last glimpse was of her sitting in the front of the canoe, an arm on each side, paddling with determination to get to her next destination. Later, when the assistants inquired as to the location of their canoe, we silently pointed downriver…

“They swam out to the speedboat (since there was no canoe) and headed downriver, where in a mile or so they came upon Princess and Pan sampling blossoms from another tree. Knowing the jig was up, Princess took her son and climbed up into the canopy, and the assistants reclaimed the canoe. By the next morning Princess and Pan had made their way back to Camp, but on the wrong side of the river…” She had to be helped into the canoe.

“Princess lifted Pan onto her back and climbed in, settled herself right in the middle and with arms resting on the gunwales, calmly, patiently waited for Mr. Yatrra to deliver them back to the dock. There Princess and Pan disembarked and went on their way, looking back only once to see where the canoe would be tethered the next time it was needed.”