Orangutans love to laugh!
For people who have had the pleasure of seeing an orangutan in real life it is no surprise – but now scientists have made it clear: Feelings and responses like empathy, laughter and imitation do not only belong to humans but also our red-haired relatives.
Observations of orangutans made by scientists at the University of Portsmouth show that orangutans’ way of interacting with other relatives remind us so much of ourselves that there is good reason to believe that the apes had the feelings first.
For Lone Dröscher Nielsen the discovery is not new; it is a daily experience at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.
”Deep down I believe that people always knew it,” Lone says. “If they closed their eyes. If they admitted that the orangutans have feelings like humans, they would not be able to live with their fate and what we humans do to them”.
The empathetic abilities of the red apes are clearly seen in Lone’s daily routine.
“If one of the orangutan girls is being bothered by one of the male ‘bandits’ they all gang up to help the victim. Not a long time age Yasmin was captured by Hamlet and then they all joined together to save her. And the interesting thing was that the females were the most aggressive – as if they could imagine how Yasmin was feeling. A sort of woman-to-woman-thing,” Lone says with a laugh.
That animals are working in groups is not new, but for orangutans it is not quite normal. They are by nature not group animals. Their social ability of familiarizing themselves makes it possible for them to put themselves in somebody’s place and empathize with them.
The studies from University of Portsmouth show that distinct expressions were picked up and copied by 25 orangutans at four different places.
Lone Dröscher Nielsen also experienced this. “If a young one watches another young one doing something getting people laughing, it imitates the first one. Exactly like small children,” she says. “And they also laugh when they are being tickled.”
Source: Borneo Orangutan Survival
Photos © Borneo Orangutan Survival
