Affectionate Otters Swim Through Their Enclosure Everyday To Meet An Orangutan Family

Many animals are way better than humans at loving and caring for each other. It’s no secret that critters belonging to different species can get along well and create incredibly strong friendships, and this lovely story right here is an outstanding example. It’s proof that love knows absolutely no size and shape, at all.

Everything started in 2017, when the staff at Pairi Daiza (a privately owned zoo and botanical garden located in Brugelette, Belgium) ran the otters’ river through the enclosure of an orangutan family who just moved from Germany to their zoo, and to the zookeepers’ surprise, their beautiful blond quickly blossomed.

According to the zoo’s spokesman Mathieu Goedefroy, the otters often swim through their enclosure to visit their huge buddies. And even though they love to hang out with dad Ujian (24) and mom Sari (15) too, their son Berani (4) is still their favorite playmate.

The otters hide under large tree trunks or wooden constructions, then Berani, the baby orangutan, comes to look for them. Once and a while they pop out to tease him. It’s really amazing to see,” Goedefroy told Bored Panda.

The spokesman also shared that Pairi Daiza always wanted to enrich the quality of every single creature at the zoo’s life, and let them interacting with other animals is one of their top priorities.

“Our gorillas live together with colobus monkeys, our penguins live with the seals, our kangaroos share an enclosure with pelicans, we have squirrels living with bats, pygmy hippos with pelicans, giraffes with ostriches, Asian elephants with Asian gazelles, zebras with buffalos… and so on,” he said.

In another interview with Caters News, Goedefroy stressed that the zookeepers at Pairi Daiza had always tried their best to make sure their furry friends received the best care possible. In fact, the zoo has already raised funds to plant 11k trees in Borneo to help give the orangutans there a better environment to live in.

“Two factors are very important for the well-being of an animal in captivity: the size of his enclosure, but also the quality of his enclosure,” he said. “This means that an animal – and this is, even more, the case of orangutans, with whom humans share 97 percent of their DNA – must be entertained, occupied, challenged and kept busy mentally, emotionally and physically at all times.”

Please share this adorable story with your loved ones!

 

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