Tickle Me magnet

This cute little guy in the rainforest of Indonesia likes to be tickled and share a good laugh with friends. In the August 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine a short article about laughing apes confirms this laughing behaviour. They report that ape laughter shows that "origins of human laughter can be traced back at least 10 to 16 million years." The research was done by the University of Portsmouth in England and included orangutans, chimps, gorillas and bonobos... as well as young humans! The Tickle-Me-Elmo doll has nothing on this little creature. Like many of the orangutan orphans, this one - at an O.F.I. Care Centre in Indonesia - enjoys being tickled on his neck. Except for adult males who make long calls to declare their territory, orangutans are mostly silent creatures. Their joyous smiles are obvious - as this picture shows. This toddler is mostly blind with only partial vision in one eye, the result of injuries sustained when his mother was killed. This little boy's picture also appears in the calendar "Jungle Lessons. The artist donates 100% of her profits from the sale of this item to the orangutan Care Centre