Afternoon at the Toledo Zoo - Part 2 (pic heavy)

[frankykeno]

I always love the orangs and apes so we spent awhile with them and had an absolutely wonderful talk with one of the orang keepers. What a great lady, she's been with the zoo 21 years and they are simply part of her family, you could see the love and respect she has for these stunning creatures.

Very tired Mama Ape, you can see her youngster in the upper part trying to push her over and ruin her nap (don't I know that feeling LOL)....


One of the older female gorillas, I think her name is Juba....sort of a surreal picture really....she's so dignified and the keeper said she adores the babies, both gorilla's and human (she's apparently past breedable age)...just moments before she was making kissing faces to a little boy and it was the sweetest thing....she seemed almost sad when he walked away and she could not follow...


Another gorilla enjoying a nice mid-afternoon snack.....


Hmmm what's on the menu today?....


I think I shall sit in the section known as "My Mother's Rump"....the mother is Kutai and this is her littlest baby, a daughter (she also has a young son who lives in the enclosure with her, this female baby and the father, Boomer)....


Okay who couldn't love this face!....


Speaking of Boomer LOL....apparently now that Kutai has a new infant daughter he often gets handed Bajik his very active son to deal with and I guess he'd had quite enough for the day and retreated with some food under his blankie....Boomer LOVES his blankie by the way so if you think that's wussy you just go in there and tell him so!...the keeper told us that they'd never seen a female Orang hand off an offspring to her mate but Kutai apparently will send Bajik over to his dad or dump the baby on Boomer when she's had quite enough of them both LOL....


We got to witness the hands down most amazing thing. Boomer's older brother JJ who is 35 and was born like Boomer at the Toledo Zoo (Boomer is a young male at 17) apparently doesn't much care for other orangs and lives alone. To enrich his bachelor life they do many things....he enjoys TV though insists on watching ONLY football (typical single guy) and is currently learning to use a computer. Also in the outdoor orang exhibit they've installed a button. The Orangs push it and a sudden spray of cold water hits the crowd in the "blue zone". Apparently watching wet humans run, scream and laugh is VERY amusing for Organgs LOL.

Anyways, we got to watch JJ work his computer and spoke with his keeper privately afterwards...what a wonderful hour that was! JJ goes into his "computer room" at will, is not kept there and can leave whenever he wants. As soon as he indicates he wants to use his touch computer screen the keepers have to move it fast to turn on theirs or JJ gets impatient, knocks on the glass and smacks his screen to make them hurry it along. The interaction has two parts, at first they ask show him one of six fruits or nuts, tell him the name verbally and ask him to indicate on the computer screen which it is...if he gets it right, he gets the treat. In part two, he freely chooses what he'd like to snack on and they respond. The funny part was when JJ indicated "banana", the keeper who was distracted answering a question replied "banana" verbally but accidentally picked out a peanut. Ever wonder what a confused huge male Orang looks like...well I know LOL. JJ wouldn't take the peanut, he indicated again he'd nicely asked for a banana and would the stupid human please put down the peanut and pick up his dang nanner. It was too funny! Eventually the goal is to computerize JJ's entire enclosure so he can receive drinks, snacks, turn on his tv or music, control his lights, basically whatever he likes at the touch of his screen.

JJ's keeper setting up for the training exercise...


JJ using his computer....


JJ responds and seems to enjoy humans cheering and clapping for him. They used to do this training privately but have found that JJ's so bonded to people that he wants this food treats but also the adulation of his many fans here in Toledo.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Adorable, Orangutans are my favorite, who can resist such a cute face?

[daaangconcepts]

what's on the menu today?....

This ones my fave, its crazy cute!!

[frankykeno]

For a zoo that's mid range as far as collection size Toledo does a pretty nice job with their animals and the enrichment programs/housing decor they chose for them.

[Earl]

Great pics Jo!