Orangutans aren't monkeys and otters aren't felines. Quite a few people obviously need a crash course in Zoology 101, lol!

Love this. A lot of good feelings. One thing though is that Orangutans are not monkeys, they are considered great apes

Hoping the zoo keeper who figured this out got a raise! Love it! ♥️ “You cannot share your life with a dog or a cat and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings”. -Jane Goodall

Love this heartwarming story. Give this zookeeper a raise and a bonus!

that idea to combine the enclosures was not just a bonus for the orangutans, those otters got a nice big expansion so they are probably even happier too, especially considering their new friends

Orangutans are not monkeys, they are Great Apes. They do not have paws, they have hands. They are very complex, similar to us. I am glad that they finally have other company, I can imagine how lonely it would have been for them. Thank you for the vid.

This is what humankind should be focused to : being worldwide gardeners and foresters. Carring about plants life and animals wellness. The reward is so much better than what we are working for. Thank you this video brightened my day !

I really needed this joyful story today! What a reward this must be for one very concerned zookeeper, who opened up their world! I hope it opens many eyes and hearts. THANK YOU for sharing this with the world.

They're apes, not monkeys. So glad that the orangutans are happy now. I love the orangutans, they are so smart too.

As the son of a university biology professor, I cringed every time he said 'monkey'. To miss-quote Foresy Gump 'I may not be a smart man, but I know what apes are'.

These beautiful creatures deserve so much better than what humans have given. I could watch them all day long and never get bored. They are absolutely magical!

We are still far from knowning how much smart and sensitive animals really are.

Putting the Orangatans together with the otters was genius! Also putting other species together is a great idea. Animals are smarter than we give them credit for.

Another key difference to note between the orangutans' interactions with the otters vs. human park visitors, is that they're able to actually touch and play with their new friends, rather than being separated by glass, only able to look. I love how the young'ins run off to play, while the "adults" chat, just like humans often do!

I can't help but feel very sorry for captured animals. I'm glad that these two groups have given each other some company.

This was a great idea! Seeing the orangutans and otters hanging out and playing together was adorable and heartwarming.

Baby Orangutan: "Can we get a cat?" Adult Orangutan: "ask your father" Baby Orangutan: "PUPPIES!!!"

Zookeepers like this are special people who are truly invested in the animals welfare. Not only did it help the orangutans and otters, the new idea has helped others as well. People can absolutely take a lesson from this. Thank you for posting this!

Love & friendship comes in all forms!! Bless that zookeeper!!

We need more people like Mathew. Thank-you for showing these amazing souls such care and devotion, the Arangutans were obviously suffering through being lonely and now look so well as they play with their Otter friends. X

Sorry but your information is incorrect…. Those otters were there long before the pandemic and has nothing to do with loneliness. Pairi Daiza is a very animal friendly zoo where they have a lot of space and distraction. The zoo is not even open all year around just to protect the animals from too much stress. They were never bored…. Let alone dying from loneliness. This zoo invests a lot into the welfare for the animals.

Zookeeper Matthew has certainly earned his pay. Hopefully he got a raise just for being this brilliant!

No living creature should suffer loneliness. Everything deserves love, touch, and joy. ❤

I am an animal lover to begin with but the Orangutan is up in my top 5 and has been for decades. There was, at one time (He is probably "gone" by now) an Orangutan at the Milwaukee Zoo that LOVED to interact with the visitors MUCH more than others. He would "preform" by doing rolls, jumping on the tire swing and just act like a clown, periodically stopping to laugh boisterously and applaud himself. He would do this for a few minutes then he would end the performance with his signature move. There were a few different ways he would do it, but my favorite was he would turn his back to the glass, bend over and look at the people them laugh in that position while he flipped you off! EVERYONE would just die laughing which made him even happier!!

I'm a 70 years young gentleman and have a good grasp on life and this posting brought tears of joy. I'm so grateful that someone saw the orangutan’s depression, but more so that they did something about it. I am not normally in favour of animals in captivity, but for the survival of endangered ones, it the only way sometimes. So happy to see animals happy with their life. I hope other zoo's take notice and follow this zoo's innovated idea.

Animals have feelings just like people do. They need interaction with others, be it people or animals. Loosing the interaction that they are used too can make them lonely and depressed. They need some kind of stimulus to keep them happy. What this zoo did was genius. They created an environment that helped many different animals. Well done!

The San Diego Zoo has orangutans and siamangs in the same enclosure as they share the same habitat in the wild. Their interactions are heartwarming and very funny most of the time. Siamangs can be rather naughty toward the orangutans and it's always fun to see what they get up to.

This is so adorable. Personalities everywhere. Love that this worked so well. Sometimes you just need a friend💜

This just proves that we're all here to make connection and to love eachother.

Pets make us feel less alone, keep us entertained, and enhance our lives. There is no reason it should be any different for our bright "cousins" the orangutans. This cheered them up and me as well :) Well done Mathew!

I, being human, have a very best friend who happens to be a cat. It's not that unusual, two species hanging out and loving life together. The more pals, the better, I'd say. 👍

Otters are quite the playful things we had some in the crick next to us and I'd watch them play for hours floating and sliding down the bank it was so cool how they float on their backs with their hands crossed just chilling 😁👍🏼

The main problem with keeping animals in zoos is mental stimulation, keeping them from being bored and in the case of more intelligent animals like apes & elephants providing fun is so important. The keepers here have created an interesting & fun environment for the animals to ENJOY.

Everytime this dude said “monkey”, it annoyed me more than it should have 🤣😂 haha ahhhhhhhhh but right on with the hairy friendships!

I watched a programme recently about The Tower of London, and they said the Ravens missed the visitors during the pandemic, and were bored. Shame more people aren't like this man, he deserves a medal.

This is my favorite kind of story, love developing between two different species. I think it happens a lot more than we realize, but it shows how animals aren't all instinct, how they have big beating hearts just like us.

The company of another living thing, just goes to show it doesn't need to be the same animal (within reason), just a physical/emotional connection that is truly being craved and given freely. A wonderful, life-saving, idea by the Zookeeper.❣🌹

There absolutely is something to be learned from them how they don’t care about how different they are, how it helped the orangutans mental health and how truly beautiful and amazing it is.

I think that is so beautiful. Animals are way more caring, very smart and most of all alot more loving and forgiveness than humans are. God bless our animals.

Loved watching this video and the interaction of the growing friendship of an unlikely pairing. Great that the zoo keepers had the best interests of the orangutans and were able to stop the state of depression.

Animals need company too. Koko , the famous Gorilla who learnt sign language, asked her keepers for a kitten. They obliged.😁👏

What an awesome story. I LOVE IT and having natural red hair myself, I think they are special already...>LOL Blessings.

kudos to all involved in recognizing and attending to this major jump in animal husbandry.

Otters are very friendly - I personally watched them play tag at an Indiana, USA zoo with a 5 year old boy. He was running alongside the aquarium glass wall, switching directions as fast as he could, while the otters swam underwater inside the glass aquarium, matching his speed and direction with ease. Every time he switched direction to try to lose his "tail" and the otter instantly flipped over and reversed direction too, the boy would shout with glee. I also knew a native american Ojibwe medicine woman & grandmother, who tells of playing with a wild otter family as a very young girl. She was watching the otters play on a mud slide into the creek, and it looked like such fun that the girl could not resist taking a turn on the mudslide herself. This startled the whole otter family, but the adults came and circled her swimming and sniffing her while she froze, and eventually they touched her showing trust and friendship. The girl began visiting the otters daily, sharing her lunch with them. One day she had the bright idea to invite the otters to come and visit her home for a tea party, and she enticed the whole otter family to follow her home, where she fed them bits of cooked fish on her tiny tea party saucers at a short tree stump/ table just their size. A great time was had by all, and her parents were amazed, because when she previously told them about her adventures with the otters, they thought she just had vivid imaginary friends. The human family moved away shortly afterward, as it was time for the young girl to go to school and there wasn't one nearby. This was not the first time Grandmother made friends with local wildlife; she got her childhood name "walks with bears" when she was just beginning to walk; a bear family stopped by the wilderness clearing where her family lived, and the cubs played with her, and she was steadying herself while walking by gripping the bear cub's coats as they walked beside her under mama bear's watchful eyes. When Grandmother's mama saw this, it scared her half to death; she feared what a normally over-protective mama bear could do to her bold daughter gripping the cubs, but the mama bear was very patient and caring to this tiny, hairless cub of a different species. The bears left after the grown humans showed up.

Social life is equally important to human beings also. The elderly should also be kept engaged in the interests of their mental.health.

What a wonderful idea that their together!! What amazing caring folks 💕💕💕

Super awesome story ❤

You repeatedly refer to orangutans as "monkeys." They are not monkeys, they are apes. There's a difference.

A companion makes a world of difference to any truly lonely person, it doesn't just apply to great apes and monkeys, that's for sure.

This makes me so happy! I never considered how the pandemic affected zoo animals. I love the idea! well done!

You gotta respect that zookeeper. He really understands his animals. They're lucky to have someone who cares so much.

I have 3 cats. They keep me sane. Having weird little creatures sharing my living space is entertaining and comforting. We have nothing in common but mutual existence and it works well. They do cat stuff, I do human stuff, everyone's happy.

Wow mind blowing!!! I'm a very hard person to impress BUT this is fantastic. Thank you for coming up with that idea because I love animals an would of been upset if they got sick ect. I really love watching how they interact with each other definitely made my day.🎉🎉🎉

I used to live on a boat and this group of 3 otters used to hang around, I'd give them the occasional treat but mostly they just seemed to want to socialize and show off and do acrobatics in the water, then they began leaving "gifts" exactly as some cats do, fish heads, pieces of crab, etc. They are amazing creatures.

So heartwarming to see the care and concern the zookeepers gave these animals and the ingenious solution to the problem

I find it strange that different species were "discovered" to be able to live and play together. Anyone that has ever had a farm or ranch knows this. I have dogs playing with goats. When we had cows, the goats would often come to them and play and they would try to headbutt each other. We would give cracked corn in a 50 gallon barrel that had been cut in half length-wise so they would come when we called them. One of the goats got smart and she would lie in the barrel and eat to her heart's content. The cows would try to get her out with their horns but could not as she laid real low. The cows would start bellowing their displeasure. :D The cows would even play with our dogs. And of course, many of them wanted to be with us or play with us. Elsie, one of cows, would run over to my wife for her to scratch her neck. Some of the goats would jump on us. Many of the animals wanted little "snacks" that we had for them and would try to sniff our pockets and nudge us for them.

Kudos to Methew for doing this, it is done in the Zoo in Hamburg for many years. And there the otters try to tease the Orangutans quite often and sometimes have to be locked away ;-)

It’s great that Matthew did this for the animals. Now we need someone, like Matthew, to get humans to do this with each other. Human loneliness is an increasing problem.

“Thumbs Up” for the animal keeper ... he did a wonderful job ...

Otters were the perfect pick! They are so fun to watch for everyone! Sure glad moods were lifted and friendships created! That is one smart zoo administrator!

Epic , I know its a saying ... However i can feel an unusual warmth in my heart . Never imagined this was a literal feeling . Thanks for posting this .

This was an amazing, heartfelt story. Thank you for sharing!

Everyone needs something outside themselves to make life interesting. Well done guys!

I’m glad that the zoo keeper was inventive with solving the depressed orangutans… brilliant❤️

Me: "Oh wow. I would love to see video of Orangutans actually playing with Otters!" Life Stories: "Great! Here are some pictures while we describe it to you..."

Who would have thought that Orangutans and Otters would be good friends. Wow the guy that came up with this is a genius for sure.

What a wonderful story of friendship to see. I’m just glad the Orang-utans have found friends through this pandemic. I could imagine their how they felt. I lost my mum in March this year, my heart breaks every day, I really miss her. Being alone is no fun.

I love the friendliness between the Otters and Orangutans, it just seems so natural, its just beautiful to see.

Such a wonderful story of inter species relations. We need to pay attention to this!

That is one smart and kind man beautiful!!❤❤

This is among one of the most heartwarming stories I have heard! Intuitive, caring steps taken by the keeper, and which have made all the difference in the world to the orangutans (and the playful otters)! Just a lovely story, and a joy to watch x

Animals are interactive creatures as well, so it's certainly a great idea to let animals who are friendly with each other (not threats to one or the other) to have more interaction! Kudos to the zoo keepers!

This is simply magical ✨️. What pure souls animals have. 🦧🐵❤

Amazing! What a great idea! I hope other zoos take heed and follow the example.

nothing makes me feel more happy and puts a smile on my face than watching animals interacting and playing with each other-thats my fix for the day!!

This is a beautiful story. It’s wonderful to see the caring of the zookeepers.

This story is what we all need. We are all more the same than we are different. Thank you ❤❤

That was an amazing video, my husband and I watched it with tears in our eyes. Thankyou for sharing this post with us.

This just touched my whole heart!! What a wonderful idea ... humans could learn so much from animals ... I hope more of these enclosures can become home to more than just one ... thank you for saving these wonderful babies!!!

Having ferrets, which are in the same family as otters, they are the most inquisitive little creatures I have ever encountered. They are extremely social and I think more curious than cats. I have to guess that otters are very similar with their social skills and quirky curious minds. What a great idea! Brought joy to all of their lives. I love the thought of the otters being able to swim from their enclosure to the orangutans. You can get even more creative with it. The more they can explore the happier they will be. My ferrets are free range. The thought of caging them would be like keeping a cat in a cage. It would break their little souls.

This is just damn amazing it made me cry. It's beautiful ❤thank you I hate zoos cause of taking these animals out of there homes but this made me happy

dogs are mans best friends... a perfect combination.

I love the story and how the Orangutangs were helped out of lonliness....by making friends with the otters...I am glad!

What a beautiful story! That someone thought about these animals and then found a way to help them! I love how the orangutans and humans compared emotionally. Lonliness kills

Both are hysterical species to watch! I would love to see them interact on video!

Love this video well done to the zoo keeper for letting those otters keep the orangutans company it was so sad for all the animals when the zoos had to close in the pandemic & also the zoo's lost a lot of money ❤

The announcer INSISTS ON CALLING ORANGUTANS “Monkeys” FACEPALM

In my hometown in a small zoo, a lonely orangutan was given a kitten. It was love at first sight. His keeper write a childrens book about the friendship.

I had a South American Redfoot Tortoise named Studebaker for almost 40 years. One year, during a really bad winter a black cat started hanging out in a basement window well. I started putting food and water out for her. One day she came in and made it clear I was going to be her human. I kept Studebaker in my kitchen. She was paper trained and hand fed. When Motor City Kitty first saw Studebaker she didn't know how to react. Over time they became best friends to the point where they slept together. Inter-species friendships can happen, all we need to do is keep out of the way and let it happen.

These are two terrific species. So nice to see them become friends. I have to say, I'm a bit envious.

Glad they had each other's company to entertain each other and make them all happy! It's a beautiful thing.

If any one interested to know. The names Hujan means rain, Sari means Juice and Berani means Brave in Malaysian Language. Be blessed.

Otters are really smart and playful, even amongst themselves. To have another really smart animal to interact with is good for them both.

I don't know if this was before the pandemic or after ,it is a beautiful story❤

Good to know that there are people who have the ability to come up with ideas to enhance and perpetuate the species. This may even work with other animal groups.

This is such a heartwarming story. Otters are very mischievous. In Scotland we have many, and yes they are very personable lil fellas. Thanks for putting this up. It made my day.

This is just too cool. Never would have guesssed this pair of.species would have hit it off. Just Wow!

Why can't the rest of the world...humans... express this kindness for one another? In the U.S.A. we could treat each other with this kind of love. It's beautiful.

This Caretaker is a caring, educated man! What a Hero!

Its so amazing that they understand, the otters are so much smaller then them, & they are so gentle with them!! Such beautiful intelligent creatures!!