{"id":283121,"date":"2026-02-14T01:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283121\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:55:21","slug":"astonishing-behaviour-filmmakers-left-a-robot-orangutan-in-the-borneo-rainforest-the-footage-helped-solve-a-mystery-that-puzzled-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283121\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAstonishing behaviour.\u201d Filmmakers left a robot orangutan in the Borneo rainforest. The footage helped solve a mystery that puzzled scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The intelligence of chimpanzees has been frequently studied, such as their ability to use tools<\/a>, medicines<\/a> and even \u2018toilet paper\u2019.<\/a> However, while orangutans<\/a> have been subject to less scrutiny, they perform just as well as chimps in cognitive ability tests.<\/p>\n

So to learn more about these incredible animals, a team of researchers and filmmakers teamed up for the BBC TV series Spy in the Wild to film a group of them using spy cameras in the Borneo rainforest.<\/p>\n

In the footage, an orangutan mother crosses a river to reach an old research post to obtain a bar of soap left behind by humans. Then, she shares it with a friend.<\/p>\n

The footage was captured by John Downer Productions for the BBC’s Spy in the Wild. Credit: John Downer Productions\/Getty<\/p>\n

Around 40 years ago, rescued orangutans released here learned how to use soap by observing people washing in the river.<\/p>\n

However, the orangutans that \u2018Spy Orang\u2019 films were born wild \u2013 indicating that this behaviour has spread among the wild population. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why the wild population continues this has been unclear. But then, Spy Orang captures a female doing something extraordinary. And it might just explain this behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The intelligence of chimpanzees has been frequently studied, such as their ability to use tools, medicines and even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-283121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}