A man was clearing snakes from a river in Borneo when an orangutan reached out to him, offering a helping hand out the water. The man was in a forest run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), where the heartwarming moment occurred.
Anil Prabhakar captured the moment and shared it on social media. These giant apes are critically endangered and so the need to protect them from venomous snakes is of the utmost importance.
According to CNN, the man clearing the waters is a warden working with BOS in the forest. When the ape approached him, he was standing in chest-high snake-infested waters.
‘I saw an orangutan come very close to him and just offer him his hand,’ said Prabhakar to CNN. He continued: ‘I really wasn’t able to click. I never expected something like that. I just grabbed that moment. It was really emotional.’
According to Prabhakar the entire moment lasted 3-4 minutes. According to BOS, orangutans are Asia’s only great apes. They are found mainly in Borneo and Sumatra in Indonesia and 10% found in Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia.
Image: Unsplash
