(source: AnimalsMedia)
A joey belongs to a kangaroo. A tadpole belongs to a frog. A puppy belongs to a dog while a tiger cub belongs to… an orangutan. This is actually what an orangutan from Myrtle Beach Safari shown on the video below.
According to the video, the male orangutan tried his shot at caring the tiger cubs after watching his caregivers do it. Who would’ve thought that this could be even possible?
As you can see, the orangutan babysits the tiger cubs like it was his own children. He carries them on his back, feeds them with a milk bottle, and hugs them with both his arms and legs. Surprisingly, the tiger cubs seem to enjoy their “father’s” company.
In the wild, tigers are one of the natural predators of orangutans. On some parts in Indonesia, there’s a species of orangutans called Sumatran Orangutan that lives on top of trees to avoid their predators, the Sumatran Tigers.
Everyone knows that tigers one of the animals located at the top of the food pyramid, while our orange friends stand close to the bottom. Tigers are known as carnivores, animals that only eat meat. Orangutans, on the other hand, are omnivores (though their diet is mainly focused on shoots, fruits and leaves). In the wild, it’s common for carnivores to eat herbivores and other omnivores.
But in this scenario, these 2 different animals looked like they’re just under the same category. As a matter of fact, the orangutan even treated these baby carnivores like it was really his own babies.
Believe it or not, relationships between two different animals are not that rare. In the animal kingdom, various animals have different “relationships” that one or both animals benefit from each other. In this case, the orangutan and the cubs are showing mutualism. Mutualism occurs when both animals benefit from each other.
Just by looking at the video, we could see that the cubs are getting all the caring that they need from the orangutan. And as we can see, the orangutan’s enjoying what he is doing. Truly, this shows that there should be no reason for us to care for others. For these orangutan and tiger cubs show that no matter where you are located on the food chain, you can still show your affection to others.
Will this continue until the cubs grow into fully sized cats? We could only tell that by waiting for the cubs to grow. But as of now, I think we should just watch this orangutan babysitting tiger cubs again and again until our hearts melt with joy!
