iPads and Orangutans: Recipe for Disaster or Optimism?
Friday, May 11, 2012 at 4:42PM Would YOU give an iPad to an orangutan?
This week in our Podcast of Optimism, we discuss the very fortunate orangutans at the Miami Jungle Island zoo that have had the privilege of using iPads since 2011.
While the orangutans are not allowed to take the iPads into their habitat, they are allowed to use them in the presence of caretakers, and the iPads have assisted in making communication better between man and animal.
Using an App originally written to aid in communication with children with Autism, the orangutans (especially the younger ones!) have taken to "playing" with the iPad and researchers have marveled at the easy time the orangutans have had in learning how to use the device.
Click here to listen in!
Below is a video not from Miami but from the Milwaukee County Zoo which has also started to use iPads with their orangutans. Very cool!