Top of the class
ORANGUTAN JUNGLE SCHOOL C4, 8pm
IN one of the oddest, and cutest, school runs you’ll ever see, half a dozen infant orangutans pile into a wheelbarrow together for a ride through the forest.
This is Jungle School, a home for orphaned apes in Borneo, Indonesia, that sees an extraordinary team of devoted staff teach them the skills they need to survive on their own in the outside world.
Whether it’s climbing a tall tree or cracking a coconut, there’s plenty to learn before they are released back into the wild.
With nearly 70 pupils, The Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Centre is the largest orangutan rehabilitation centre in the world. Staff have rescued the animals after their parents were killed, often by poachers.
And there’s a proper education system too, with a curriculum split into nursery, primary and secondary schooling just like ours.
Jacqui, from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which runs it, says: “Jungle School is so important because it prepares the infants for a lifetime in the forest.” In this episode watch out for ‘Big Boy’ Beni, who is struggling with childhood obesity, and the class clown Valentino, who is always looking for a way to get out of his lessons.
And there are tense scenes as the staff try to reunite teen mum Clara and her baby Clarita, who are emergency arrivals after a male kidnapped the tot. Is it too late for Clara to accept Clarita and begin feeding her?
One of the team, ‘babysitter’ Letha, says: “The orangutans are like foster children to me. I nurture them like my own child.”