It is always adorable to observe the friendship between different animal species. This time, an unlikely friendship between a family of orangutans and some otters at a Belgian zoo has captured the attention (and hearts) of the Internet.
The orangutans and the otters first met when the staff at Pairi Daiza Zoo in Brugelette redirected the otters’ river through the orangutans’ enclosure. Since then, a healthy and, dare we say, magical bond has formed between the two species.
A family of orangutans has befriended a group of otters at Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium.
This is dad Ujian, who is 24 years old.
He has formed an especially strong bond with the otters.
Dad Ujian, 24, mom Sari, 15, and their son Berani, who just turned 4, make up the orangutan family at the zoo. In one of the photos, Berani is playing hide and seek with his friends, the Asian small-clawed otters.
Mathieu told Bored Panda that the orangutans and otters mainly play chase and hide and seek. “The otters hide under large tree trunks or wooden structures, then Berani, the baby orangutan, comes to find them. Occasionally, they come out to tease him. It’s really amazing to see.”
According to Mathieu, the zoo invests a lot in “enrichment” for their animal enclosures. “This means that not only the size but also the quality of life is very important. One way to do this (besides hiding food, making puzzles, organizing mental games, putting up new swings or logs) is to place animal species that can interact with each other in the same enclosure, or make them able to see each other.”
“Our gorillas live with colobus monkeys, our penguins live with seals, our kangaroos share an enclosure with pelicans, we have squirrels living with bats, pygmy hippos with pelicans, giraffes with ostriches, Asian elephants with Asian gazelles, zebras with buffaloes… and so on,” he said.
Mathieu confirmed to Bored Panda that the zoo is currently closed to the public until they are allowed to reopen; Belgium is currently facing a lockdown due to the coronavirus. “This doesn’t prevent us from providing our animals with the best care every day.”
This is Berani, 4 years old, who loves playing with his friends and is absolutely adorable.
Berani is a very curious little orangutan and loves playing hide and seek.
“Two factors are very important for the well-being of an animal in captivity: the size of its enclosure, but also the quality of its enclosure,” he told Caters News. “This means that an animal – and this is even more the case for orangutans, with whom humans share 97 percent of their DNA – must be entertained, occupied, challenged, and kept busy mentally, emotionally, and physically at all times.”
Mathieu noted that since 2017, when the orangutans moved from Germany to Pairi Daiza Zoo, the otters have loved interacting with their “big furry friends.”
“In particular, baby Berani and dad Ujian have developed a very special bond with their neighbors,” Mathieu said. “It makes life more fun and interesting for both animal species, making it a very successful experiment.”
Palm plantations in Borneo and Sumatra threaten the orangutan populations there. Mathieu told CNN that Pairi Daiza Zoo has raised funds to plant 11,000 trees in Borneo to restore a forest there and help the native orangutans.
People loved looking at the photos of the animals playing together.
