More fun

August 20, 2020 6:35 AM

After a long day of playing in the forest while their juvenile counterparts were at Orangutan Jungle School, an active congress of orphaned baby orangutans at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation in Indonesia adorably piled themselves into wheelbarrows in order to catch a ride back to the nursery where they’d be safe and well-fed
posted by growabrain (16 comments total)

“More fun than a barrel of monkeys a wheelbarrow of baby orangutans.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:29 AM on August 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

Ok, who remembers seeing this place on an episode of 3-2-1 Contact?
posted by ocschwar at 7:49 AM on August 20, 2020

wow this is too cute
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:51 AM on August 20, 2020

Awwwwww! (Also, paging ChuraChura!)
posted by Kat Allison at 10:29 AM on August 20, 2020

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with orang
utans
posted by snofoam at 11:11 AM on August 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

I have a list of videos I save to show one of my partners when we cuddle to cheer them up, and this is so going on it.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 11:31 AM on August 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have work to DO

How can focus on programming when these require my undivided attention??????
posted by Kitchen Witch at 12:09 PM on August 20, 2020

As one of my favorite Discworld characters would say: Ook !
posted by Pendragon at 1:55 PM on August 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

Awww. Sniff. Yay.
posted by winesong at 2:11 PM on August 20, 2020

We do need a wheelbarrow to be honest, I'm just wondering where we can get one with the relevant ... attachments.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 2:57 PM on August 20, 2020

Orangutans kind of creep me out for how human they are. What a cute bunch though.
posted by Windopaene at 3:57 PM on August 20, 2020

https://support.orangutan.or.id/donations
Take my money!
posted by check engine at 4:10 PM on August 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love the apparent universality of "kids reaching out of the cart to grab stuff."
posted by eponym at 4:13 PM on August 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

They are desperately cute, but videos of orphaned baby orangutans in wheelbarrows, being hugged and held by human caregivers, do nobody any good. Most of those baby orangutans at rehabilitant centers have been confiscated from the pet trade, which is itself fueled by videos of adorable baby orangutans being hugged and held by human caregivers.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:43 PM on August 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

I think at some point you have to balance "oh no what if someone sees this and wants a pet" with "hey maybe someone sees this and gives us some money to help keep these animals alive and returned to the wild." Unless we have a benevolent omniscient utopian secret government that will fully fund such things while also keeping it completely secret, there's a cost-benefit analysis. The videos explain that the orangs are to be rewilded, that the caregivers are rotated to avoid attachment, and also that many of them come from the pet trade (along with pathos-inducing shots of their condition at the time.)
posted by Scattercat at 5:11 PM on August 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

Believe me, I am aware of how challenging it is to fund orangutan research and rehabilitation centers. There is good evidence that videos that show wild animals, especially primates, in cute contexts with humans, helps fuel the pet trade. Providing context, like this post did, is a good way to mitigate that. But in general, these videos don't help orangutan conservation.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:27 AM on August 21, 2020 [1 favorite]