A wild orangutan found a camera and suddenly became a professional photographer

A longtime wildlife photographer studying orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo recently got more than he bargained for when he recovered his GoPro camera.

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On it were dozens of selfies taken by some orangutans who found the camera he left hidden.

Ian Wood, who has been photographing the wild animals for years, left the camera on purpose in a patch of woods in Tanjung Puting National Park so that he could take closer shots of the primates.

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Little did he count on the orangutans taking selfies — hundreds of them.

Wood was amazed at the shots he got, saying “I went through the images and found a few which were remarkably decent photos.” However, he also said he almost didn’t get the camera back.

"When a 3-year-old orangutan picked [the GoPro] up I was amazed at the level of interest he showed," Wood told The Guardian. "My emotions quickly turned to concern when he put it in his mouth and bit it."

The orangutan also ran off with the camera before dropping it from a tree, which enabled Wood to recover it. Wood also hopes the pictures will raise interest in the animals, saying that "orangutans are critically endangered mainly due to forest clearance for the palm oil industry." He did add that Tanjung Puting National Park is "well protected and home to over 4,000 of these great apes."

Cox Media Group