Bruno the Escape Artist
May 19, 10:06 PM

Bruno the escape artist sounds like a great stage name for a Hungarian magician in a traveling circus. Bruno has thick flowing orange-red hair giving him a stage presence that would make even Houdini envious. Bruno, however, is not an actor or an escape artist in a traveling circus. He is an Orangutan but he is an escape artist. Just over a year ago Bruno escaped from his enclosure causing the LA Zoo to evacuate and temporarily close. Some of the Newspaper Head lines read: Orangutan tries to flee zoo, Orangutan escapes pen at US zoo! In the LA Times article it read: After punching a hole through the mesh that surrounds his habitat, Bruno made his move…

A few days ago while sketching at the Zoo I asked a zoo official about the incident. The zoo official was very forthcoming and told me about the entire event.

The orangutan exhibit at the LA zoo is relatively new with several different enclosures, running water green grass and plenty of things to climb on. Instead of bars the exhibit is enclosed with a metallic mesh-like net. The nets of each enclosure are connected so that the animals can move freely between enclosures.

Bruno had a favorite spot in one of the enclosures. He would constantly go there and just hang around. Or so everyone thought- he’s not an escape artist for nothing. Very carefully and deliberately Bruno used his massive fingers to slowly unwind the metal cables but never enough for zookeepers to notice. After several months of this the cables became weaker. Freedom was so close Bruno could almost taste it. He couldn’t take it anymore he wanted to be free. Using his incredible strength Bruno ripped the hole wide enough for his entire 300-pound girth. He made his dash for freedom. The alarms were sounded around the zoo; panicked people fled the zoo, in fear of the ferocious red-haired ape on the loose. Bruno didn’t care if people were scared, he was free, and he’d been planning this for a long time. He knew exactly where to go. He went right up and opened the refrigerator door. His bid for freedom didn’t take him very far he was in the kitchen near the holding area behind his exhibit. So much for wanting freedom, Bruno just wanted to see what was in the fridge.

Bruno as an orang has a mixed pedigree and childhood. Bruno is neither a Sumatran nor a Bornean orangutan, he’s both. A hybrid and forbidden by the zoo to have progeny. As a youngster he was raised by humans and is very calm around humans. While the whole zoo was in turmoil searching for an escaped ape. A zookeeper simply found Bruno outside his exhibit in the kitchen area and took him by the hand and escorted him back to his enclosure. If you go to the LA zoo you can find the spot where Bruno made his great escape. It’s near the entrance of the exhibit and is easy to spot because of the strong metal re-enforcements on the mesh.

a quick sketch of the repaired mesh

It is remarkable that Bruno had the patience and the strength to escape. The zoo official explained to me the strength of great apes: “ It’s said that a chimp is 4-6 times stronger than man and a gorilla is 7-8 but Orangs are 8-10 times stronger.” This seemed to fly into the common knowledge that gorillas are the strongest apes but no. Orangs even the big males are arboreal, they branchiate throughout the forest and can rotate their arms 360 degrees. Now when I draw Bruno, a huge hairy red version of Chewbacca, I have a new found respect for his strength, intelligence and motivation; “what’s in the fridge?”

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Comments

I favorited this post on my google reader, great writing, great story, amazing drawing. Crazy.

— smacleod · May 20, 09:19 AM · #

I have to second the first commenter: great writing, great story, great drawing.

And I wanted to say thanks for including a link to my blog under your list of artist links!

— kenjanuski · May 22, 02:18 PM · #