The daily school run at this orangutan orphanage in Indonesia is slightly different to the average – and not just because it involves a dozen of apes.

Every day charity workers take a group of abandoned baby orangutans on wheelbarrow run into the jungle for lessons on how to survive in the wild. The young apes have all been orphaned and as a result are having to teach themselves the skills their mothers would have taught them in the wild. 

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To help them learn, International Animal Rescue, a charity in Keptang, Indonesia, have built the forest school where the youngsters can climb and swing from the ropes and barrels.

Each day, the orangutans are taken in wheelbarrows from their sanctuary to ‘jungle school’, with the aim to return the animals to the wild once they are fully rehabilitated.  Their adorable school run shows up to nine of the little ones looking happy huddled up while being easily transported to the baby school.

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Orangutans usually spend seven to eight years with their mother and learn the skills they need to survive. So the charity have created an environment as close as possible to what life would be like in the wild for them where they can learn from each other instead. 

Staff at the centre, including vets, local volunteers and workers from all over the world care for the apes and teach them the skills they need such as feeding themselves, grooming themselves and each other and finding safe places to sleep and play.

In Borneo, orangutan mothers are killed by poachers who catch and sell their infants as pets, condemning them to years behind bars or in chains. Some orangutans end up being smuggled abroad and imprisoned as exhibits in rundown zoos, private collections or even hotels.

Orphaned baby orangutan and Rickina at the International Animal Rescue Orangutan Conservation Centre in West Borneo Rickina and Rocky were snatched from the wild and kept as pets before being rescued by the IAR team The babies mothers are likely to have been killed trying to defend them from poachers and Rickina still bears the scar of a machete wound on her forehead After an extensive period of rehabilitation both young orangutans will be released into protected areas of forest where they can live safely far from human habitation Find out more about IAR s orangutan conservation project at www internationalanimalrescue org

International Animal Rescue is a charity which rescues the orphans and ensures they are rehabilitated into the wild.  

Alan Knight, CEO of International Animal Rescue, said: ‘As time goes on they will learn from the other orangutans how to climb and forage for food, just as they would in the forest.

Young orangutans learn a great deal by imitating and copying each other, just like human children.

‘They will also gradually shed their dependence on their human babysitters as they develop bonds with each other.’ 

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Brent Lindeque is the founder and editor in charge at Good Things Guy.

Recognised as one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s as well as a Primedia LeadSA Hero, Brent is a change maker, thought leader, radio host, foodie, vlogger, writer and all round good guy.

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