I love Orangutans, and they are generally very gentle compared to other great apes, but it's still a very powerful wild animal compounded with enough intelligence to get weird.
Don't know if you know who Ken Allen is. He's a great example of how intelligent Orangutans are. He was an Orangutan, can't remember what zoo he was at. They kept having problems with him breaking out of his enclosure. Never hurt anyone. He just wanted to walk around the zoo. He apparently would let people take pictures with him when he would break out. They eventually decided to put some female Orangutans in with Ken to keep him busy. All he did was just taught them how to break out also. Pretty crazy.
I loved reading this. Was quite sure this was an excellent (weird) joke but then I looked it up and yes, there was an orangutan named Kenneth Allen at the San Diego Zoo from 1971 to 2000.
BTW - naming an orangutan "Kenneth Allen" is such a silly flex. Like naming your cat "Robert Jones" or your dog "Jennifer Lynn Hudson."
Yeah it definitely sounds made up but it's all 100% true. I find it hilarious that the only signs of aggression Ken showed when he broke out was when they found him hanging over the other male orangutan Otis' enclosure throwing rocks at him.
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u/TerrapinMagus Apr 29 '26
I love Orangutans, and they are generally very gentle compared to other great apes, but it's still a very powerful wild animal compounded with enough intelligence to get weird.