On a scorching day at Nyaru Menteng’s Forest School in Central Kalimantan, some students from Group 4 discovered the ultimate way to cool down.
Monte was the first to find a refreshing mud puddle nearby and, without wasting any time, immediately sat down beside it. At first, he just dipped his hand in to feel the water, but after a while, he fully hopped in to enjoy a cool bath.
Monte sat in the water, dug his fingers into the mud, and then wiped it all over his body. He even plucked out some stems and used the leaves to apply the mud all over his body. What a lovely, organic body treatment!
Upon seeing Monte in his mud bath, Uru, a fellow student in Group 4, seemed to want to join in. He approached Monte and sat near the puddle, at this time still with completely dry hair. He then started touching the water with his hands and feet, playing with it, before continuing to make bubbles in the water with his mouth.
It wasn’t long before Uru was entirely covered in mud, just like Monte – and two very wet and muddy orangutans enjoyed a delightful spa date together.
Text by: Dr Nadine Adrianna Sugianto, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, working on the Orangutan Enclosure Design Tool (EDT) Project in collaboration with BOSF – Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan.
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