Going Ape

This is Minyak, a male Borneo Orangutan at the Los Angeles Zoo. I've been visiting him, his harem, et al. about once a week for the past several weeks as part of an anthropology project. This is not my project, mind you, but my sons'. They are both taking a physical anthropology class to fulfill their lab requirement for associate degrees.

Sometimes I am amazed at how ill-prepared and even apathetic college students are until I remember what I was like at that age. At any rate, I've rather enjoyed observing the mother-daughter pair (Kalim and Birani), Eloise (who doesn't seem to do anything but eat, sit or lie snug under crumpled kraft paper), the courting couple (Minyak and Rosie, Eloise's daughter) and Bruno, whose mixed Sumatra-Borneo parentage made him an undesirable father and earned him a vasectomy.

This is the way to enjoy animals - observe them for a couple of hours at a time on each of several days. Fortunately, I could see how things were going to be, and I got us all zoo memberships so we don't have to shell out $10 every time we visit.