Wattana: An Orangutan in Paris

Wattana: An Orangutan in Paris
ISBN-10
022616859X
ISBN-13
9780226168593
Category
Nature
Pages
185
Language
English
Published
2016-05-02
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Author
Chris Herzfeld

Description

In 2012, a documentary about an Orangutan in Paris, Nanette, enthralled viewers the world over with an intimate story about the life of primates in captivity. Nanette is one of four orangutans in the renowned Jardin des Plantes Zoo, originally populated in 1792 by animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles. Wattana joined Nennette at the zoo in 1998, along with her brother Vandu. Born at the Antwerp Zoo, by the age of three and a half months the siblings were put into the care of their primate cousins, the zookeepers. It was in Paris that Wattana met Chris Herzfeld, and the origins of this book sparked. Herzfeld discovered that Wattana could tie and untie knots, fine motor skills the discovery of which made quite a splash in the primatological world and the project shares the character of this remarkable species (and great apes in general), using Wattana s life to traces the history of orangutans from the first to arrive in Europe in 1776 to the Jardin s inhabitants today. Orangutans in the wild are predicted to disappear by 2030, but a book like this may help ensure that Wattana does not become the orangutan equivalent of Martha, the last passenger pigeon. Opening the door for readers into the intimate world of captive primates their habits, techniques and human know-how Wattana can drive an iPad, likes tea, sews, and draws on paper. The work is focused primarily on great apes in captivity, and their amazing plasticity. "

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