Orangutan conservationists in Indonesia teach apes that snakes are dangerous [VIDEO]
Sss-care tactics! Sanctuary workers teach orangutans that snakes are dangerous with hysterical performance using rubber serpents
Borneo Orangutan Survival in Indonesia is trying to educate the gentle apes They put on a melodramatic display by pretending to be bitten by a snakeThe orangutans need to fear snakes before they can be released into the wild A videos of the amateur dramatics has been viewed more than 8.6 million times
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This is the moment orangutan conservationists used their acting skills to teach the apes that snakes are dangerous.
Footage shared on TikTok by Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) in Indonesia shows the rescue centre workers staging a fake snake attack using plastic serpents.
The comically over-the-top performance has gone viral, attracting more than 8.6 million views in less than a week.
Conservation workers for Borneo Orangutan Survival in Indonesia hide a rubber snake under some sticks to teach the apes to fear the creatures in the wild
One of the rescuers pretends to have been bitten by a snake, sparking panic among the apes
The video, captioned ‘the orangutans we rescue need to learn that snakes are dangerous… this is how conservation works’ was shared on March 10.
It shows a worker for the charity pretending to be bitten when she steps over a rubber snake a colleague had hidden under stick on the forest floor and covering it with some sticks.
She throws herself to the ground and screams, scaring the orangutans. Some hug each other wide-eyed while other scatter and scramble up trees.
The video has been liked more than 1.4million times with more than 12,000 comments from enthusiastic viewers.
A second video, posted on Sunday, March 13, shows a charity worker bringing a rubber snake on a stick towards a group of orang utans, and one of the other workers screams upon seeing it.
The orangutans flee upon seeing one of the workers falling down pretending to be injured and hearing her scream
The apes are being taught to fear snakes as they will need to know to avoid them when they are released into the wild
This causes the gentle creatures to run away in fear.
BOS rescues and rehabilitates orangutans on the Indonesian island that have been orphaned, injured or illegally kept as pets.
Without their mothers to teach them, the orphaned apes do not realise the often deadly hazard posed to them by snakes.
Instead workers at the charity’s rescue centres use the scare tactics to teach the orangutans to stay away from snakes when they are released into the wild.
Orangutans are listed as being Critically Endangered by the World Wildlife Fund, with fewer than 120,000 surviving in the the wild. There are many conservation programs to try and save them, including one at Chester Zoo, where Subis (pictured right) lives
Known for their distinctive red fur orangutans – a name which means ‘man of the forest’ in the Malay language – are gentle animals that live in groups in the rainforests on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
They are critically endangered, with habitat loss caused by the expansion of palm oil plantations and poaching driving their numbers down to less than 120,000 individuals.
They are very closely related to humans, sharing 96.4 per cent of our genes and are incredibly intelligent having shown the ability to learn how to use tools, fish and even sign language.
