Katai is a female orangutan from the zoo of Brasilia. There, living exposed during the day and being collected during the night, she got real panic of being locked in the inner area of the enclosure. And she had reason for that, as long as the basement she used to be stuck at, and that visitors do not have access, were worthy of horror movies (photo).

Today she lives in the sanctuary of Paraná, in a huge enclosure, made especially for her. This location features outdoor area with trees, places to climb, water tank and an internal part that serves as a temporary area for cleaning and also for food.

However, the trauma of Katai is deep and she refuses to go inside, making the job of cleaning handlers very hard.

In order to solve this, it was installed occupancy sensors that shut the doors that divide the inside from the outside when Katai goes to get her food, thus enabling that her external enclosure is cleaned periodically.

Katai, however, has proven to be smarter. Realizing that her entrance was giving the input for the doors to close, she decided to try to get her food in a different way, from the outside. For this, she practically ripped a four-feet long tree from the outside, go the leaves out and tried to “fish” her food, pulling the fruits out of the enclosure. One can notice, looking at the pictures, that it is not just a stick, but the stem of the tree. After all, as the distance was long, a branch would not solve the problem.