Orangutans: Wizards of the Rain Forest

Rating:
Summary: Inlook on animal psychology
Review: Interesting and funny look at the behavior of the endangered species of orangutans. This book describes the experience of Russon and her colleagues' work in transitioning abused and pet orangutans back to living in a natural environment. Orangutans are visibly very cunning animals, which have managed to trick the researchers in this national park more than once. Russan recounts her experience with an orangutan that insisted on washing clothes, and describes stories of them raiding secured guard posts and untying canoes and taking them up and down the river.

I recommend this book to anyone who has interests in psychology, especially that of animals and people with pets.

Rating:
Summary: Good science writing on Orangutans
Review: Not taking anything away from Birute Galdikas who has been studying Orangutans longer than Anne Russon, but this book is different than Galdikas' two books, and as a scientific overview of these great apes it is hard to beat. Galdikas' REFLECTIONS OF EDEN mixed natural history with memoir, and ORANGUTAN ODYSSEY is slim - less text and more photographs - and serves as a good coffee-table book.

Russon worked with ex-captive and former pet Orangs who were stationed at a rehabilitation center learning how to be "wild". Her descriptions of their behavior is fascinating. They have extended childhoods, and in the wild they would spend this time with their mothers learning by imitation. In captivity their learning ability has been transfered into a fondness for using human tools. The incredible imitative skills of Orangs was a revelation for Russon. This is something that primatologists have stressed as significant about all the great apes. Galdikas recognizes this as a challenge in reintroducing apes to the wild. Frans de Waal goes further and has done studies on how such "human imprinting" has impinged on the animal's "culture".

Russon only provides an introduction to such topics as animal intelligence and whether or not they have a culture. Her examples of Orang learning and imitative behavior make for a thoroughly interesting read and may encourage readers to further explore the subject. I therefore highly recommend this well written book.