Finding Princess
In 2017, I returned to the rainforests of Kalimantan to search for an orangutan I had known since childhood. By then, Princess was already believed to be gone. There was no guarantee we would find her, and that uncertainty became part of the story itself.
Princess arrived at Camp Leakey between 1977 and 1978, around the same time as I did. She arrived as a young ex-captive orangutan, roughly a year old — the same age as I was. For me, the trip was a chance to return to a place that had played such an important role in my life and reconnect with an orangutan I had known since childhood.
The search was part of the television show Raised Human, an Animal Planet series that explored the relationship between humans and animals raised by humans. I worked as the location manager for the production, helping organize the logistics of filming in one of the most remote places in the world. To me, it didn’t feel remote; after all, I grew up here. But one of the women I worked with carried a “Check-In / I’m OK” GPS device that she had to activate every day so the office back home knew she was safe. It was a strange thing to watch — a place I thought of as home being treated, maybe correctly, as one of the most isolated spots on earth. I also acted as a translator when needed, working with the rest of the crew and the local assistants who made the production possible.
Dr. Gary Shapiro was involved in the project as well. He had worked with Princess from 1978 to 1980 for his groundbreaking American Sign Language studies. His decades of work with orangutans, particularly at Camp Leakey, through the Orangutan Foundation International and his own organization, Orangutan Republik Foundation, have contributed greatly to our understanding of these animals and the challenges involved in conservation. He once said it felt like Princess had “chosen” him for his study and not the other way around.
What made Princess remarkable was not just that she learned some human language, but the way she demonstrated the ability to interact socially with humans in complex ways.
The work with her became part of the broader debate about great ape intelligence.
By mid-2017, Princess had not been seen for a few months. This was not entirely unusual for orangutans at Camp Leakey, but the time scale was usually shorter for her, and there were some concerns that she was unwell. We spent two weeks in Kalimantan searching for her around Camp Leakey and other remote areas of the park. The rainforest is an incredible place, but it can be difficult logistically. The forest outside of camp itself can feel like an enormous place, and an orangutan can disappear almost completely if she wants to.
One thing that stayed with me from my time in the forest is that orangutans stop feeling like a different species. They have their own personalities. Some are curious, some are stubborn, some are playful, and some seem to prefer keeping their distance. Some are good at getting what they want. After spending time around them, their individual personalities shine through, and you come to see them as orange, hairy people with long arms instead of just a group of orangutans.
Princess was one of those individuals. But I never got the answer we were hoping for when we went looking for her in 2017. We did end up finding one of her surviving children, Pan, instead. The last time I had seen Princess was years earlier at Camp Leakey, and before that in 1999, when another documentary I was involved with was shot.
We still don’t know what happened to her. But other visitors to Camp Leakey and I remember Princess as a sweet and mischievous orangutan. She was comfortable around people, and she had a reputation for being resourceful. There are well-known stories of how Princess would “borrow” a canoe to cross the river so she and her son Pan could reach flowering trees on the opposite bank. Unlike many of the other orangutans, she always returned the canoe afterward.
