Caitlin McGarrity
January 2, 2026
Hello! Caitlin M. from the Orangutan Care Team here! In this installment of Keeper Stories, I wanted to chat about my two training primaries and the different training goals that they have. Here in the Primate Department, each care team member is assigned one to three primary individuals that they work with to train their new/or most complex behaviors. I have the unique opportunity on my team to have our oldest orangutan, Benny (age 46), and our youngest, Nangka (age 2), as my two primaries.
While managing their health is the same overall goal for both, being the oldest and the youngest, the two are in very different stages with their training. At 2 years old, Nangka is new to the training process and is in the midst of learning all his core behaviors. These behaviors allow us to check up on his well-being, such as opening his mouth wide to see his new teeth coming in, or presenting his shoulder for injection training with a blunt needle so that he is prepared for receiving his first round of vaccines. He is also learning to separate into another room from his very food-motivated mom during feeding times so that he can have his diet all to himself. It has been one of the greatest joys for me as a keeper to watch him grow more engaged with his training sessions as he grows.
Benny, on the other hand, having learned all his core behaviors already, is more focused on maintaining his more complex behaviors. These include presenting his chest for care team members to obtain doppler recordings of his heart rate and rhythm, or his fingers for obtaining finger blood pressure readings. Cardiac issues are one of orangutans’ biggest health concerns, so we do everything we can to monitor their heart activity starting from a young age. Nangka will eventually learn these behaviors one day as well once he has learned all his other core behaviors.
This system of electing primary trainers is important for trust building and strengthening keeper-animal relationships and helps each care team member focus on priority behaviors for each orangutan. While I love all the orangutans in my care equally, I have definitely formed deep relationships with Benny and Nangka as a result of them being my primaries.
Caitlin M.
Orangutan Care Team
