Best Friends

Animal antics are delightful to watch, and the more human the behavior, the funnier and more endearing an audience is likely find it. But there is something particularly heart-warming about the tale of Surya and Rosco. A dog without a pack meets a young, playful orangutan. Without a moment’s hesitation they are rolling around together, wrestling and playing. Surya even provides food from her own rations!

“A good pack leader is going to make sure that his pack survives,” said Cesar Millan. “He needs the pack; he can’t make it by himself. It’s no surprise that an orangutan, or a cat, or a dog, or any animal in this situation would share food with a follower.”

Though the dog was encouraged to leave and return to its home, he continued to come back day after day. The ape and dog had become a pack of two; inseparable. What fraternal instinct brought the two together? What can we learn from their friendship? The social habits of animals can serve as a window into our own behavior and the behavior of our canine companions.

“You can see that no matter what the orangutan is doing, the dog is in a submissive state,” said Millan of the video. “He touches him, kisses him, and no matter what he does, the dog remains submissive. That is trust at its best. That tells you that you don’t need to know dog training to establish a relationship with a dog. The fundamentals of life are universal; it’s about trust, respect, and loyalty. And it happens right away for animals. It can take a long time for humans, because we intellectualize it. A human, before he gets a dog, has already read four or five books on dog training, so when he finally has the dog, he is confused about which method to practice! The orangutan is a beautiful example of how instincts work differently.”

Watch the video

What has the bond between Surya and Rosco taught you?

Friends at First Sight

They really don’t have much in common. One forages for fruit; the other, if given half a chance, will drink from the toilet. One can walk upright; the other is strictly four-on-the-floor. One’s natural element is in the treetops of Borneo’s forests; the other looks his good ol’ best riding in the back of a pickup truck.



Yet, when Suryia the orangutan met Roscoe the blue tick coonhound, it was interspecies love at first sight.

The two weren’t even aware of each other’s existence until two years ago. Suryia was living in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.). And Roscoe? No one’s exactly sure where he was before he made his first appearance.

The duo met when Dr. Bhagavan Antle, the institute’s director, was riding Bubbles the elephant through the woods for a cooling wallow in the river, with Suryia in tow. “Out of the woods comes this skinny little hound dog,” says Dr. Antle. “He runs up to us. He’s fearless. Normally dogs don’t like the elephants, and they don’t like orangutans. And Suryia doesn’t have a particular affinity for dogs. But he jumps off the elephant. They jump into each other’s arms—and they act like they’re long-lost brothers.”

Watch them on YouTube