I was watching a documentary yesterday about some kind of a help centre for primates. They particularly showed ornagutans and chimps. I'm not sure what the main purpose of this centre was as I only watched the programme for some 10 minutes... but there was this whole story of an orangutan that was abandoned by its mother in a zoo in Russia and the carers were looking for help and family for this poor ape. Anyway, what happened was the representative of this primate centre was sent all the way to Russia to get the ornagutan and take it back to the UK. So there it is this chap who wants to help the ape: he walks into the room... and what do we see? We see a woman (someone who looks after the ape) standing by a baby crib, lots of toys around and baby clothes around and... the orangutan wearing a nappy and a pink top! The story then continues, the bloke "makes friends" with the ape which is later taken to the prmate centre, where it is meant to get all the help and live as naturally as possible. And here I changed the channel! I do understand that great apes remind us of ourselves, that they are characterised with lots of interesting features that make us want to study them in order to learn more about the human evolution etc., but seriously... do we really need to make them wear human clothes and keep locked away in zoos? Studying apes can be done in the wilderness and naturalists or biological anthropologists do do that! If we think about it, looking at apes in their natural environments is so much more beneficial than in zoos or other kinds of captivity. For example, it must be very exciting to see how apes look for food and do not have it provided by humans. Or how they choose partners for mating etc. Natural parks are a better idea, primates should not be taken away from their natural habitats! And I do understand that they are endangered species, but do we really think that apes brought up by humans will ever be able to survive in the wilderness? Oh well, just a little thought... I just felt very sorry for the little orangutan in a nappy and a pink top...