{"id":359233,"date":"2026-03-26T13:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/359233\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:59:11","slug":"filmmakers-released-a-robotic-orangutan-into-the-borneo-rainforest-what-it-captured-was-astonishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/359233\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmakers released a robotic orangutan into the Borneo rainforest. What it captured was astonishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although chimpanzees are renowned for their tool use<\/a>, there are many animals in the natural world that use sticks, rocks and shells to their advantage. But none are filmed using equipment that you\u2019d find in a DIY toolkit\u2026<\/p>\n

For the 2017 BBC TV series Spy in the Wild, scientists and filmmakers teamed up to capture natural animal behaviour. As part of this, detailed robotic animals were built and fitted with cameras, then deployed in a variety of habitats. <\/p>\n

And in the Bornean rainforest, \u2018Spy Orangutan\u2019 was used to film the behaviour of a group of great apes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Camp Leakey, in central Borneo, you\u2019ll find orangutans<\/a> who have been removed from captivity and returned to the wild.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thought that these orangutans have seen people use tools to build the huts in the rehabilitation centre and copy this, combining their imitation skills and ability to use tools.<\/p>\n

But the orangutan in this clip is wild-born, suggesting that the behaviour has been passed down through generations.<\/p>\n

Similar behaviour was also filmed for the 2002 BBC TV series The Life of Mammals, which was presented by David Attenborough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The orangutans in this group washed their hands, \u2018rowed\u2019 boats and grasped tools.<\/p>\n

Top image: a screenshot of a video of an orangutan using a saw. John Downer Productions co-produced Spy in the Wild. Credit: John Downer Productions\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although chimpanzees are renowned for their tool use, there are many animals in the natural world that use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-359233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}