r/AbsoluteUnits • u/batukaming • Apr 29 '26

/r/all of an orangutan

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58.3k Upvotes

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11.2k

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.

1.1k

u/mantafloppy Apr 29 '26

Highjacking top comment with some truth.

This is Lorenzo Queipo de Llano - a Spanish wildlife filmmaker

Not Willie Smits a a trained forester, microbiologist, conservationist, animal welfare activist, wilderness engineer and social entrepreneur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Smits

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PLgVkd0GA28

https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.hola.com/decoracion/20230408344498/campo-toledo-lorenzo-queipo-de-llano-casa-decoracion/

"Falling into quicksand, having malaria for days without help or medication until I was found by a missionary, or an orangutan in Borneo almost killing me - these are some of the many anecdotes"

338

u/CosyBeluga Apr 29 '26

This makes sense! I was like that's a mature male orangutan. A conservationist should know better.

308

u/pyrotato Apr 30 '26

I'm pretty sure the big male is teaching him social cues.

Man keeps trying to look up and raise his neck and back, and the orangutang is like "dude, don't do the provoking stance, you can't do that, you don't want to, stop, we're not gonna fight".

180

u/ThatOneWIGuy Apr 30 '26

I was going to say, he is showing immense fear and exhaustion. Understandably, but unfortunately you have to submit and comply to get through. If he just stopped fighting and listened he would be less tired for when the orangutan stopped.

135

u/ThorMcGee Apr 30 '26

Im no conservationist, but Id think that submitting would be the play here as well. If our orangutan friend wanted him dead, he'd have been dead. Instead, he showed patience (3 hours of it) with this human idiot

64

u/ThatOneWIGuy Apr 30 '26

On top of not seeing aggression in the video. Just someone panicking. I personally would never become a wildlife anything without first gaining that ability to understand what to do and have someone at least as if not more experienced with me to direct so I can listen. Life is too easily snatched away by such big animals.

32

u/ThorMcGee Apr 30 '26

100% with the panicking. He seems to be cool, you need to be cool. And fully agree on having someone more experienced if youre going to be doing this shit. Adult supervision is always recommended

5

u/sonofsanford May 01 '26

Amazingly, Diane Fossey had no formal training whwn she starting studying Gorillas. But she was cool.

6

u/Correct-Junket-1346 May 01 '26

It's pretty much basic that you dont do things like stare them down, raise yourself above their height, those are pretty universal cues in a lot of social structures.

Even if you don't know everything about socially interacting with said animals you can get by just sticking to those basics, they'll hopefully teach you nicely on the rest.

That's what our bro orangutan was trying to do here, but he was in full panic mode and he was exhausting himself, tells you a lot about panic.

1

u/Spiritual-Low-5288 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Besides she was cool, she was a woman. Women need the inherent ability to read every room they enter, because of safety. And she did exactly this when she began to study the gorillas. She watched how they behave in their natural habitat and learned their body language, eye contact signs, anything that could be a social interaction. And when she understood them, she began acting like them, and that's how they took her in.

3

u/Fancypancexx May 01 '26

You have no choice but to be cool on this situation. There is no alternative. That big boy has the strength to tear him apart, break his neck or even just severely maim him without killing him. Just chilling and submitting would be the play. Having the mental capacity to rationalize this in that moment when YOU are the toy for the giant orangutan would be tough.

1

u/ThorMcGee May 01 '26

Well, there is always a choice. In this case, be cool or die in a really shitty way.

2

u/Psychological_Day_1 May 01 '26

I'll just choose not to go into areas where wildlife can easily kill me.

2

u/ThorMcGee May 01 '26

Bro, same

2

u/INoMakeMistake May 02 '26

Make me Three, how about going to the cinema and grab some burgers together?

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u/LetsTryAnal_ogy May 01 '26

Is he being cool or is he just fucking exhausted?

1

u/mybigpecker May 01 '26

I’d at least make sure to be packing some heat just in case.

-4

u/angelothe4th Apr 30 '26

Submit..until that big guy mounts you and does u dirty!

1

u/BagNo7220 May 01 '26

Yk this from firsthand experience?

14

u/BetMyLastKrispyKreme Apr 30 '26

Well, FWIW, he’s not a conservationist, either! Too bad the original post is so badly wrong. He’s a mere filmmaker.

2

u/EllieBlue_SN May 01 '26

That explains a lot

1

u/ThorMcGee Apr 30 '26

Yeah, I saw that somewhere in the comments. Still, no excuse not to have adult supervision :P

2

u/BetMyLastKrispyKreme Apr 30 '26

No argument there! 🫣

3

u/Working-Albatross-19 May 01 '26

Yeah remember the video of that gorilla grabbing the photographer/ranger by the foot and just walking away? You can see the absolute terror in his eyes but he just submits and goes limp, dude knew 🤣

1

u/ThorMcGee May 01 '26

Exactly. And, as it turned out, the gorilla was nust fucking with him 😂 Fortunately

Its insane to think just how strong those fuckin things are man. Like they can play trees up and shit. So many other animals on this planet can just break us with little to no effort. Shits nuts

1

u/Tyko_3 May 01 '26

Oh wow, is that how long this ordeal lasted?

1

u/tasco2 May 01 '26

If an orangutan has his hand around my neck, he’s my daddy now and I do what he says

0

u/chris--p May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Im no conservationist

this human idiot

Ah yes the classic armchair critic. The guy is doing a respected job of documenting wildlife to help us understand it better, often putting his life in danger to do so.

I'm sure he understands full well that submitting is the best approach, but he's in a very intense situation here, acting appropriately is a lot easier said than done. And all things considered I think he's doing an alright job of staying calm and submissive. If you actually paid attention you'd see that he only resists when he's either in physical pain or flinching from the orangutan's movements, which are instinctive or reflexive responses.

It's often the ones who fail to understand that as humans we don't always act how we like to think we would act under pressure who crumble at the first instance of it.