Unlikely Friendships - Jennifer S. Holland [23]
{INDONESIA, 2007}
The Orangutan Babies and the Tiger Cubs
SUMATRAN TIGER
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Chordata
CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Carnivora
FAMILY: Felidae
GENUS: Panthera
SPECIES: Panthera
tigris sumatrae
A matchup of captive-born babies was the talk of the Taman Safari Zoo in Cisarua, Indonesia. One-month-old Sumatran tiger twins and a pair of little orangutans just a few months older shared a room in the zoo’s nursery. The parents of both primates and cats had proven unfit or uninterested in their young, so zoo staff decided to mother the whole bunch as one litter.
The orangutans, Nia and Irma, and the tigers, Dema and Manis, formed something like a nursery school romper room when they were brought together during the day. “As is common with baby animals, they’d run and play together,” says animal curator Sharamy Prastiti. “Sometimes an orangutan would pounce on the belly of a tiger. Other times a cub would bite an orangutan’s ear. They loved to tease each other, like kids do.” Naptime turned boisterous individuals into a furry pile of snoring babies. Cuddling, nuzzling—orangutans and kittens were content to be physically close as much as possible.
The zoo staff began giving the animals more time apart in their own exhibits as they grew, and planned to separate them completely when the cubs were five months old. “At that point, the tigers are much bigger than the orangutans, and can be very active and sometimes naughty and rough,” says Sharamy.
When the youngsters were first parted, “they didn’t want to be independent—they looked as if they were all missing something. They’d make unusual sounds, as if crying without tears,” Sharamy says. But after a week or so, “they became adjusted to being on their own and the new situation.” The former pals now have no contact at all, a separation that’s appropriate and necessary to keep them safe. Though the orangutans are fruit-eaters, the tigers’ natural instinct, of course, is to hunt and eat meat. Nursery school is over.
The shared childhood appears to have benefited all concerned, but these animals also share something that can’t be celebrated: In the wild, both species are critically endangered. Sumatran tigers, a subspecies living naturally only on a single Indonesian island, may be down to about 500 animals. And orangutan populations are also declining. Both big cats and big apes compete with humans for habitat, a conservation problem without a simple solution.
{ENGLAND, 2009}
The Owl and the Spaniel
GREAT HORNED OWL
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Chordata
CLASS: Aves
ORDER: Strigiformes
FAMILY: Strigidae
GENUS: Bubo
SPECIES: B. virginianus
SPANIEL
Gentle, friendly—the
perfect FAMILY pet—
the English springer
spaniel was originally
a hunting dog, known
for its ability to flush,
or “spring” game.
At a bird-of-prey conservation center in Liskeard, Cornwall, a spaniel named Sophi has a taste for owls. Fortunately, she licks, not bites. And the meeting of mouths is mutual.
English spaniels are natural hunters, and flushing out and retrieving birds is their specialty. But in this case, Sophi the dog seems to have replaced those hunting instincts with something a bit more genial.
Normally Sharon Bindon, the conservationist who runs the center, doesn’t bring birds into her house. In fact, Sophi hadn’t gotten to meet one close up until the day Bramble arrived. But the owlet showed up at just two weeks of age, still featherless and too young to be placed in the aviary. So Sharon made an exception and carried the naked little creature inside.
“On that very first day, Sophi, then three, jumped up on the sofa to investigate the new arrival on my lap,” says Sharon. “As her way of affection, she started licking Bramble’s beak. From that day on, it became a daily ritual.”
Bramble was given a cozy crate in the sitting room of the house. But whenever Sophi was close by, the bird would flap and dance