March 18, 1979 — Guesthouse Living Room, Camp Leakey, Tanjung Puting, Central Borneo
It was just after noon when I stepped into the living room of the guesthouse. A calmness hung in the air, that special kind of stillness the forest often offers in the heat of midday.
Pola, a young male orangutan who was part of our sign language project, was sitting contentedly in the corner, lips wrapped tightly around what looked like a crumpled, well-loved spice packet. He wasn’t chewing so much as savoring—drawing out every bit of flavor like it was a delicacy. His eyes were soft, his focus absolute. He was in a state of what I can only describe as spice meditation.
Then Princess entered.
Where Pola was introspective, Princess was always present. Attuned. Intentional.
She quietly approached Pola, leaned in with purpose, and signed “food.”
No reaction.
She signed it again, a little firmer this time—“food,” making sure he could see her hands clearly.
Pola paused. He looked at her. Then, wordlessly, he lifted the spice packet from his mouth and offered it to her—no resistance, no hesitation. She took it gently and moved away, with Pola following a few steps behind, as if curious about what would happen next.
There was no growling. No posturing. No grabbing. Just… a moment of request and a moment of response.
Now, some might ask whether Pola truly understood the sign from Princess. Was it a coincidence? A conditioned response? A social cue?
I think it was more than that.
Princess used sign language with another orangutan. Not for my benefit. Not for a treat. Not as part of a lesson. She initiated communication. She asked. And Pola responded—not by mimicking, not by reacting to a human, but by offering something he clearly valued.
That moment, fleeting as it was, marked something significant: language crossing species lines and turning inward—ape to ape.
It was raw. Unstaged. And profoundly beautiful.
This wasn’t about vocabulary size or syntax. It was about connection. Intent. The beginnings of shared meaning.
And in that simple exchange, over a spice packet no less, Princess and Pola reminded me that communication is not just about words or signs.
It’s about the willingness to listen. And the grace to give.
— Orangutan Dad
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