A few months ago I met Dr. Gary Shapiro, founder and President of Orang Utan Republik Foundation. He was the first person who was noted for his efforts in teaching symbolic communications to Orang Utan. After months of trying to get in touch with him, I finally met him in his cozy house during his holiday in Bali island, Indonesia. It was a great experience. I learned a lot of new things about orang utans and he gave some great advices for me. Today, I will share with you my interview with Dr. Gary Shapiro. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Shapiro.

 

P (Patricia): Why did you start working with orang utan in the first place?

G (Gary): Actually, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I wanted to study the ocean. I remember watching Jacques Cousteau, a French oceanographer, marine biologists who inspired me. I was at my junior college as a marine biologist major and pre-medical. So I wanted to go into a medical school. It was one of the options that I had. And I tried onto occasions but my grades were never good enough. So I was hoping to go to a 4 year college after my junior college. And I wanted to transfer to a school that would allow me to finish a degree in marine biologist. However, I was late in applying. Then I went to Fresno state college. I went there and got my zoology bachelor degree. I was thinking about continuing with my master degree and I had to choose a topic. I was able to go into the zoo into Fresno zoo and worked with an Orang Utan. And I chose teaching symbolic communication to an Orang Utan. And I was a zoology major but I was doing such thing in a totally different field. This is such a psychology. I am kind of person who like different kind of things and I can explore many areas. Nobody worked with Orang Utan before. They worked with chimpanzee and gorillas. But they never worked with Orang Utan. 

 

P: How did you teach them?

G: Orang Utan learnt sign language very quickly. So I chose kind of a technique using plastic children letters. I bought those and went to the cage with an Orang Utan. Every day we got to know each other. I would put the plastic letters out and she would take one and put it down there. Eventually she learnt to associate each letter with different objects. Then, I decided to make two letter sentences. Example: ?give apple? or ?give banana?. One letter was ?give?, one letter was ?banana? or ?apple?. I did that for 2 years. See how long it took for them to learn how to associate the symbols and objects and then to create the sentences. I finished that project after almost 2 years. I went to Oklahoma and I started working with chimpanzee, including Washoe the first singing chimp. While I was there, my professor called me up on July 5^th, 1977. I remember that day because it was after the Independence Day. And he asked me that there was a woman in Borneo who wanted somebody to teach sing language to Orang Utan that she thinks it?s killing other Orang Utans. She wanted to know why. Do you want to go there? I said yes. Immediately. 

P: Do you have any facts on Orang Utans that you would like to share?

G: Orang utan mother is the best mother in the world. Better than many human mothers. They invest every day with every child they have. They teach them every day how to survive, how to move to the trees and watches the babies until they are confident and brave. When the babies get older, she allows the babies to find solutions in their own. She always watching and monitoring the babies. The babies have to learn how to nest, find food, to learn which food poisonous etc. it is a very very long learning process. Orang utan mothers always stay in one area. They don?t move to other areas. They stay in one territory. Only male Orang Utan leaves and moves and stay in other areas. This is to prevent inbreeding.

P: What do Orang Utans eat?

G: Orang Utans eat young leaves, barks, flowers, young shoots, termites, ants, cocoons of butterflies and fungus. They love to eat durians, mostly red durians named Kerantungan. It is a kind of wild durians, smaller than other durians and very sweet. I have an Orang Utan daughter named Princess. She was 4 years old when I went to Kalimantan to meet her. First time I gave durians to Princess, she looked at it, she sniffed and pushed it away. I ate it and she looked at me like I was crazy. How could you eat that stinky food. I gave her another one, she pushed it away, I ate it. The third time I gave her, she tried it and she loves it. By the way, Orang utan mothers have to give enough oil in the diet. Oil is a form of fat and they need to have enough fat in their bodies to ovulate. Orang utan mothers are very choosy in eating.

 

P: How about the issue between palm oil industries and Orang Utans?

G: Orang utans like the same type of forest that palm oil will be very good at when you clear the forest. Low land and peatland forest. Palm oil loves that. There are lots of illegal palm oil operations in Indonesia. When the people want to open up one forest for palm oil operations and they find Orang Utan mothers and the babies, the mothers might be brutally slaughtered, because local people do not know how to handle the big Orang Utans. Mothers that are protecting the babies will be very aggressive. She does not have any other choices than to protect her babies. It is really important that palm oil companies contact the rescuer organizations to rescue this Orang Utans and then to release them in other areas. Please do not shoot the mothers and sell the babies in the illegal pet trade. Right now, there are some companies that care more than others. They have been told not to kill Orang Utans.

 

P: How many Orang Utan are still surviving in the wild right now?

G: In Kalimantan, around 45,000 t0 55,000 but that number is always decreasing. The number may change because we may discover new populations. When the number goes up, it might be because we find a new population. However, their habitats are decreasing. Satellite data confirms that.

 

P: Do you have a message for the youths of today?

G: Yes. I am Gary Shapiro. I am asking you to do your part as young people to protect environment and to participate in saving this planet. Either you stop global warming, help saving environment, help saving wild lives or other things. Get involved and STAY OFF YOUR PHONE and look at the real world.

To know more about Orang Utans and get involved, you can visit:

www.orangutanrepublik.org