Did you know orangutans at Suaq love eating insects and other bugs? Adults spend on average 1 hour per day doing so (some days even up to 3 or more hours!). They usually eat termites and ants, but also bees (and their honey), caterpillars and spiders!
Experienced orangutans seem to know what’s the best way to get to their favorite insects and use mouths, hands and fingers to eat them from leaves, rotting wood, vines, tree branches and other places.
Sometimes these crawling snacks hide out of reach inside trees and nests, but the clever orangutans at Suaq have figured out how to get to them using carefully prepared sticks as tools. Here are two photos of 5-year-old Cinnamon watching her mom Cissy use a stick with her mouth to get some ants out of a tree hole and a photo Cinnamon successfully using the same technique 2 years later. What a great student!
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📷: Guilhem Duvot and Lara Nellissen
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