Tag: Orangutan

The power of self.

Confidence in what you and I can achieve is our salvation.

Yesterday, I wrote about just a few of the things going on in our world that have the power to destroy us.  Destroy us in the sense of making us feel powerless, irrelevant and insignificant.  Trust me, there were plenty more examples that I could have mentioned.

But so what!

The vast majority of the humans on this planet have control over what they think.  Untold numbers of those self-same people have control over what they do with their lives.

Take Dr Peter Pratje.  I suspect that you, as with me, hadn’t heard of Dr Pratje before.  But he is a Project leader with the Frankfurt Zoological Society and he holds an MSc in Biology and a PhD in Conservation biology.  This may be learned not from the website of that Frankfurt Society but from the website of the Orangutan project.  Bet you hadn’t heard of that project either.  The Orangutan Project (TOP) is described:

The Orangutan Project (TOP) is the world’s foremost not-for-profit organisation, supporting orangutan conservation, rainforest protection, local community partnerships and the rehabilitation and reintroduction of displaced orangutans back to the wild, in order to save the two orangutan species from extinction.

Back to the good Doctor. This is what he says, “What we do for orangutans, we do for ourselves.”

Now settle down for a tad less than twelve minutes and see the power of self, see what we can do for ourselves.

Published on Dec 4, 2013

Peter Pratje, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, introduces us to our orangutan family and reveals how we, as individuals, can help prevent their imminent extinction.

The eleven minutes long video accompanies Peter Pratje and his team working with young orangutans at the jungle school. The apes have been confiscated after illegally being held as pets. In daily training sessions they now learn the survival skills they need for a life of freedom – how to climb trees, build nests, find food and generally behave like wild orangutans. The project aim is to re-introduce the great apes into the Bukit Tigapuluh national park in central Sumatra.

Taking matters into their own hands, the young orangutans were most supportive – snatching the small and robust cameras and filming themselves climbing up and down trees.

Music Courtesy of ExtremeMusic, http://extrememusic.com

Special Thanks: Frankfurt Zoological Society (http://www.zgf.de)

Two lost souls

Remaining with the theme of love, love lost and new love.

John Hurlburt sent me the following last week and it is so perfect as a sequel to the writings of the last two days.  That was John’s poetry last Saturday on Learning from Dogs, by the way.

oooOOOooo

Two lost souls

After losing his parents, this three year old orangutan was so depressed he wouldn’t eat and didn’t respond to any medical treatments. The veterinarians thought he would surely die from sadness.

The zoo keepers found an old sick dog on the grounds in the park at the zoo where the orangutan lived and took the dog to the animal treatment center. The dog arrived at the same time the orangutan was there being treated.

The two lost souls met and have been inseparable ever since.  The orangutan found a new reason to live and each always tries his best to be a good companion to his new found friend.  They are together 24 hours a day in all their activities.

They live in Northern California where swimming is their favorite past-time, although Roscoe (the orangutan) is a little afraid of the water and needs his friend’s help to swim.

Together they have discovered the joy and laughter in life and the value of friendship.

They have found more than a friendly shoulder to lean on.

Long Live Friendship!

I don’t know, but some say life is too short, others say it is too long, but I know that nothing that we do makes sense if we don’t touch the hearts of others.  While it lasts!

May you always have love to share, health to spare, and friends who care…..even if they are a little hairy at times.

oooOOOooo

I must say that the generosity of so many of my readers in sending me these beautiful examples of what is really important in this world of ours touches me deeply.  Thank you, John.  Thank you, one and all.

Love comes in many forms

A chance email from Dan G. opens up a whole treasure trove.

Here’s what Dan sent to me,

True Friends 

After losing his parents, this 3 year old orangutan was so depressed he wouldn’t eat and didn’t respond to any medical treatments. The veterinarians thought he would surely die from sadness. The zoo keepers found an old sick dog on the grounds in the park at the zoo where the orangutan lived and took the dog to the animal treatment center. The dog arrived at the same time the orangutan was there being treated. The 2 lost souls met and have been inseparable ever since.

The orangutan found a new reason to live and each always tries his best to be a good companion to his new found friend. They are together 24 hours a day in all their activities.

Roscoe and Surya

They live in Northern California where swimming is their favorite past time, although Roscoe (the orangutan) is a little afraid of the water and needs his friend’s help to swim.

Roscoe and Surya
Roscoe and Surya

Together they have discovered the joy and laughter in life and the value of friendship.

Roscoe and Surya
Roscoe and Surya

They have found more than a friendly shoulder to lean on.

Roscoe and Surya
Love across the species boundary

Long Live Friendship!!!!!!!

I don’t know……some say life is too short, others say it is too long, but I know that nothing that we do makes sense if we don’t touch the hearts of others…….while it lasts!

So after I had seen the pictures above, it was pretty easy to find this YouTube video.

 

Then if that wasn’t amazing and wonderful, try this,

Well that’s enough for today.  But tomorrow, I will continue with Part Two which recounts the amazing year that Joe Hutto spent in the Florida wildlands with ….. (you’ll have to wait for tomorrow!)