18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Orangutan Twins

Twins in orangutans is an extremely rare event and only strong and experienced mothers are likely to manage raising two babies at the same time. As I found this mother in a fruiting tree together with another mother right next to it, which had one baby too and an adolescent with it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Six wild orangutans in one single tree! Acting slowly and very calm, the orangutans didn’t pay attention to my presence and so I could observe them for nearly two hours through the dense understory until the light slowly started to disappear and the apes vanished in the dense jungle of Borneo. IUCN: Critically Endangered Location: Gomantong Caves Forest Reserve near Kinabatangan - Borneo

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2019
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Malaysia
Copyright: © Bernhard Schubert