Well, Otto began to "imitate" the noises really loudly... it wasn't until a few seconds later that Eric and the others realized he had a look of terror across his face and was absolutely petrified. Just to be sure, they moved on to another animal and came back to the baby orangutan. Sure enough, another freak out from Otto. I felt so bad after hearing about it, but couldn't help laugh... when you think about it there are a lot of reasons to be afraid of an orangutan;
1) their buggy eyes!
2) their strangly bald heads with random hairs that stand straight up!
3) their large nostrils
4) their nearly-human-but strangely-something-else features
I could go on, but you get the point. Hopefully when we go to Hogle Zoo Otto isn't absolutely petrified when we approach these creatures... maybe my psychology studies will prove to be right about how to treat fears by the use of "flooding". But probably not. We'll see.
On to fans; the following Wednesday when Eric again had a bishopric meeting, Otto yelled and went wide-eyed at our fan! He is overcoming this fear, however, as he slowly approaches them while they're off and as we turn them on and he sees that he is, in fact, ok. He has also been talking to them more... communication always helps. Here's how he looked this morning as he pointed and talked to our fan;
1) their buggy eyes!
2) their strangly bald heads with random hairs that stand straight up!
3) their large nostrils
4) their nearly-human-but strangely-something-else features
I could go on, but you get the point. Hopefully when we go to Hogle Zoo Otto isn't absolutely petrified when we approach these creatures... maybe my psychology studies will prove to be right about how to treat fears by the use of "flooding". But probably not. We'll see.
On to fans; the following Wednesday when Eric again had a bishopric meeting, Otto yelled and went wide-eyed at our fan! He is overcoming this fear, however, as he slowly approaches them while they're off and as we turn them on and he sees that he is, in fact, ok. He has also been talking to them more... communication always helps. Here's how he looked this morning as he pointed and talked to our fan;
I have to tell you -- when I went to the Zoo with my sister and her boys, the orangutan was the ONLY animal that freaked them out. It was right up to the glass and kept putting it's hand up right at their eye level. But this one was not a baby and it was HUUUUGE. I understand the fear a little. And fyi, Otto is so cute!
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