Fun Foods Enrich Orangutans' Days 

Drop in on a hot Borneo afternoon, when the orangutan residents of OFI's Care Center are enjoying a cooling fruity treat, or puzzling over a leaf-wrapped bundle of natural treats! 

Food-based enrichment at the OCCQ

Orangutan fruit and food facts:

• Like many people, orangutans appreciate diversity and variety in their diet -- The orangutans of Tanjung Puting National Park eat over 400 types of wild food items which include fruit, leaves, bark, flowers, and insects. 

• In the OCCQ, food enrichment introduces the necessary variation into the diets of the orangutans in our care.

 

• Orangutans have a deep spatial memory -- orangutan individuals, especially females, seem to have a mental map of the spatial layout, as well as the timing of the food resources across their entire home range. To provide enough food for themselves they move around daily and through the seasons, continually foraging and eating.

• Some of the food orangutans consume in the wild is very tricky or time-consuming. For example, peeling a heavy, spiky durian, or picking tiny tart berries. 

• To maintain those natural feeding instincts, we make food-based enrichment time-consuming and challenging -- keeping the orangutans' active minds and hands busy!

• Orangutan of the Month: Brave Baby Ben

• News from the Field: Secrets of the orangutan genome

• Conservation Partners: Summer 2014 Construction Teams 

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