3.25.2009
Orangutans, actually. Kim and I are in Malaysia this week for the EARCOS Teachers' Conference in Kota Kinabalu. Its gorgeous here. The conference starts tomorrow, so we spent the last few days with our primate relatives (when I was a kid my grandfather used to take me to the zoo and point out that the orangutans and I both had red hair so that we must be related). First, we took a trip out to the mangroves to see the Probiscus monkeys, who kept their distance, and the Macaques who didn't (but weren't nearly as interesting). The next day we went to the Orangutan recovery center which re-releases orphaned orangutans into the wild. They were happy to walk right up to us (as much as the ranger would let them). The three that we saw were slowly being weened off of human dependance. The one rolling around on the ground was having a temper tantrum because the ranger wouldn't let him drink from the bottle. Haven't we all been there before...
One guy says, "MON-key!" And then when she makes a face he says, "ooRANG-GA-TAng!"
I'll try to find it on the youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUE3usQfmGI