Amazing DIY orang-utans

Orang-utans use sticks to catch insects, but do you think they would use human tools? Watch this video and find out!

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercise. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Preparation

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Transcript

Presenter (David Attenborough): You might think that this orang-utan is washing socks as some kind of circus trick for which she has been specially trained, but not so. She is doing this entirely on her own initiative. She has seen others doing it and she's copying. And that ability to imitate as well as to use tools is something which started among monkeys but has been brought to a much greater level among the apes. And those two talents were ultimately to lead to the transformation of the world.

Camp Leakey in Borneo is home to a special group of orangs who have been rescued from captivity and returned to the wild. Because they've lived partly in our world as well as theirs they can give us an insight into what we have in common. This old lady loves DIY. So does her son, who was born in the wild. Even her infant is interested. It's very striking when you sit as close to an orang-utan as this, to see how similar they are to human beings. We are both, of course, great apes. But look how human her hand is, the skill with which she picks things up, the way that she can grasp a tool like that. The way she uses her brain to imitate what she's seen others doing. But the most important thing we share is our big brain. It's that that has produced so many of the talents and abilities that we have in common.

Task 1

Exercise

Discussion

What did you think of these orang-utans? Have you ever seen one?

Do you like watching programmes about animals?

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Worksheet293.33 KB

Language level

B1 Intermediate

B2 Upper intermediate

C1 Advanced

C2 Proficiency

Topics

animals and pets

When I was young, I used to watch BBC Wildlife! This video brings me a feeling like home and evokes memories of comfort and security. BBC Wildlife was on the telly on Sunday mornings, and I watched it with my parents and a cup of milk and bread, my breakfast. Nowadays, I continue watching this TV program, just like when I was a child. I have never seen an orangutan, and to be honest, I don't want to. I recognize it as an important part of human history, but it's not an animal I like. I prefer elephants, usually the main characters of BBC Wildlife :)

I love watching animal programs because, I always try to learn about it. How they thinking, eating, or any activity of them. It's very interesting for me.

In my case, this video was interesting, i learned how the orang-utanes thinking. But i don't like so much, it gives me a little afraid, i think they don't have the capaccity to process the emotions and in any time they can felt angry.

I think these monkeys have almost the same intelligence as a down syndrome child, I mean you can really tell that both humans and orangutans share a large percentage of DNA, I don't recall seeing an orangutan before but I've seen many species of monkeys, since in Colombia there is a great variety of them. I don't usually watch shows about animals.

really helpful 😍 for learning English British Council and also Linguich.ir are the best websites I’ve ever seen

It's talented. Not really physical, but on screens. Not really.

I enjoyed the video ...still i totally refuse to consider my self or any other human as Descendants to monkeys ..which is based on a theory had repealed and haven't been proven to be correct we from the beganing till the end lived and will live as humans

Do note that a scientific "theory" is the closest something can get to being proven correct in scientific language. It is by no means a theory that lacks sufficient proof, like the word would suggest in normal speech. As an example, the theory of gravity is also still considered a theory. We know it is true, because we can observe it, just like how we are able to observe the theory of evolution. The only reason it is called a theory still, is because it always possible for a evidence to come up that changes our view of how the theory works. You are of course welcome to believe whatever you want, but if I may; often people find it hard to believe that apes "just changed into humans". But consider that we are talking of a timespan of hundreds of millions of years for small changes to appear. Our predecessors didn't just change into humans between one lifetime, which is why it is actually quite difficult to determine how we apply the term species to this theory. What was first: the chicken or the egg. This question is not just hard to answer. It is impossible.

I love this website due to its useful and interesting things which make me love studying English more. The video shows the lovely side of animal. However, I would argue with the main idea of the video which was expressed by the sentence " we are both, ofcourse, great apes". Humans are not apes. Humans are not animals. Why did the reporter strongly affirm like that without any experiments?

In science we are indeed all considered animals. That is not such a bad thing, it just means that we are living breathings things, instead of rocks or trees or bacteria. In modern science we know that we are in fact a member of the great apes, also known as Hominidae. I recommend reading up on this, it is actually really interesting! Don't think though that just because we are animals, we are now any dumber or worth less than we were. In fact, humans are a very intelligent species indeed! Something we can be very proud of. That is why it is interesting to see how Urang-Utan behave in very similar manners as us, as we are both great apes.

Animal´s life documentaries are my favorites TV programs. They are full of an amazing photography, plenty of beautiful images, and - what is more important - show how interesting are the animals: the way they live, survive and adapt to environment. If more people knows about animal´s life and how important they are for nature´s balance, for sure there would be more respect and concern about animals well-being.