Princess The Orangutan Poem by Stephen Katona

In 1978 on the island of Borneo,
A man by the name of Gary Shapiro,
Met a baby orangutan,
And so their relationship began.
He called her Princess,
And with some success,
Taught her 30 types of sign,
She would only learn what helped her dine.
I'm quite sure,
She could have learnt many more.
Gary adopted her as his daughter,
Their favourite game was to dive into water.
To his back Princess would cling,
Together they shared nearly everything.
She had lots of fun in Camp Leakey,
And was sometimes really sneaky.
She learnt to steal a dug-out canoe,
The fishermen's knots she could undo.
She'd paddle over to their traps,
To eat their fish and leave them scraps.
Princess was rather shrewd,
When it came to finding food.
The fishermen used rocks to make their canoes sink,
But had no idea how well orangutans could think.
She'd just empty out the rocks and water,
Another skill no-one had taught her.
An orangutan will make you look a fool,
If you think that brains only come from school,
So don't be blind,
Notice their clever mind,
As David Attenborough helped us see,
With an amazing film by the BBC.
'The Life of Mammals' made Princess a star,
And showed how clever Orangutans are.