One of my favourite wildlife moments was in Borneo in 2010 when we came across an orang-utan with its baby. I followed the mother and her offspring for over two hours and captured many intimate shots of their bond. However, the whole experience was tinged with sadness as the baby was not expected to live, as she was small and vulnerable. It is often said that we as human beings share 95% of the same genes as the organ-utan and on this afternoon it was abundantly clear.
Orang-utan 1, Sandakan, Borneo – Alison Price, 2010
The mother was clearly enjoying every moment with her baby – feeding her, cuddling her and then the kiss that I had been waiting for. She planted a clear kiss on her offspring’s head.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK -Orang-utan 2 and Child, Sandakan, Borneo – Alison Price, 2010
This image formed part of my successful Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society panel submitted in 2011.
Alison Price
My name is Alison Price and for the past ten years I have travelled the world photographing wildlife, including Alaska, Antarctica, Borneo, Botswana, the Canadian Arctic, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Those are lovely photos – I saw orang-utan in Borneo in the 1990’s and it was an amazing experience. They have very human expressions or is that what we want to believe? The kiss is very evident here though, so your patience was well rewarded.
Thanks Claire. Would love to go to Borneo again soon.
Wow! It’s so easy to get stuck into day to day life (in my case a week of Team calls as I started a new job on Monday) and forget the wider World.
Thanks for sharing the images of the orang-utan, a great ape (pardon the pun!).
As Claire said, well worth taking the time to get the shots. A shame the baby wasn’t expected to survive.
Great news on the new job.