At the
National Zoo in
Washington DC, the
orangutans are housed in a rather interesting
enclosure. It is a typical
simian habitat with
trees,
water,
ropes,
rocks, and all the
fixings. But it also has huge climbing posts, stretching like
telephone poles across a portion of the Zoo.
These poles are connected by ropes, and one of the coolest things is the orangutans climb from enclosure to enclosure using these ropes. Thing is, these ropes go over a part of the pedestrian walkway, and the orangutans frequently climb over passersby.
Orangutans, if you didn't know, have the terrible habit of taking a shit in their hands and throwing it at strangers. Orangutans can be extremely xenophobic in this respect. The combination of fecalphilia, orangutan xenophobia, pedestrians, and open enclosure leads to lots of Zoo visitors getting hit with ape shit.
This isn't so much of a problem as it used to be, as the apes are well-trained, but the fact of the matter is that they're still animals, and you can't easily iron things out that are rooted so deeply.
Hatless:
Agreed. I don't like the fact that we humans have a need for zoos, ie, that large percentages of our population are incapable of co-existing with other species. And I don't fault the orangutans for hucking their shit at gawkers, either, I just watch my head when I walk through on my way to work.