We always get surprised by the natural world in different shapes and forms and it has melted our hearts again in form of a Orangutan who helped a man in Borneo.
Amateur photographer by taking advantage of this amazing moment captured the Indonesian Island’s endangered ape lending his hand to a man who got stuck in snake infested water.
Prabhakar captured this fleeting scene when he was on safari at a conservation forest, he was along with his friends and decided to save it in his camera. This forest is run by Borneo Orangutan survival foundation (BOS).
The man who got stuck in the muddy was the warden trying to clear snakes. Prabhakar says that ” I saw an Orangutan come very close to him and just offer him his hand”.
According to him the guard could hardly move in the water as the water was flowing and was muddy as well. The orangutan came near to him and seemed as if he was asking “May I help you?”
Prabhakar shared his feelings and said that the scene was so moving that he couldn’t be able to click the picture.
“I never expected something like that”
“I just grab that moment. It was really emotional”.
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation manages the protected area, which safeguards the critically endangered species from hunters and habitat destruction until they can adjust to the wild. Venomous snakes are Borneo’s orangutans predators, endangered by forest fires, loss of habitat and hunting.
Prabhakar who is a geologist hailing from Kerala, India says that, “It could be said that the snakes are the biggest enemies of these apes”
He further saw that the warden then stepped away from the ape, staying out of the water. Once Prabhakar asked why he had moved away, “He said they’re totally wild, we don’t know how they’re going to react.”
Prabhakar said the full scene only spanned three or four minutes. “I am so pleased that moment has happened to me,” he added. The photo which he clicked got 15,000 likes on Instagram.
The orangutan is the only great ape in Asia and is found mostly in Indonesia in Borneo and Sumatra, with the remaining 10 per cent found in Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak, according to the BOS foundation. The Bornean orangutan population is estimated to have decreased over the past three generations by more than 80 per cent.
If injured, at risk from hunters or facing destruction of their habitats, the apes are taken to the conservation forest. They are returned to the wild once they are well.
According to BOS they grow very slowly too. In the wild, a female is only going to give birth every six to eight years.
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