Orang-utan alert!
NG Kids: What is the best thing about making Orang-utan Diary?
Steve Leonard: Seeing orang-utans returned to the wild. Watching a mother and baby who came into the centre very ill, go back in the trees eight months later, feeling fit and well – it's brilliant!
NGK: What surprised you most about orang-utans when you first met them?
SL: That they are so individual. They all look different and behave differently. They are the most human animal I have ever dealt with.
SL: Grendon because he is so cheeky and also a little bit stupid. He is much bigger now and he has turned into a real softie! Zorro, who had spent the last 12 years inside a small cage, is also very dear to me and he is still doing very well out on the islands.
NGK: A lot of orang-utans at BOS are captured to be pets aren't they?
SL: Yes, the most important job that the BOS does is rescuing orphaned orang-utans. These apes do not belong in cages as pets. They should live in trees and BOS makes that possible. The only way to get a 'pet' orang-utan is to kill a mother with a baby that is under one year of age. It's very sad that all the hundreds of orphans at the centre have been through this.
SL: The babies are looked after by babysitters, who are local women who work at the centre. They feed them, play with them and look after them when they get sick. They work really hard and are very dedicated.
NGK: How do BOS prepare orang-utans for their return to the wild?
SL: The orphans are taught where to find food and water in the forests, how to make a nest to sleep in, what animals to be afraid of and lots of other things. All the teaching is done by the babysitters.
NGK: There are some protected forests now, aren't there?
SL: Yes, thankfully there are some pockets of land that are permanently protected now so orang-utans will not go extinct in the wild but it is still a tiny fraction of what could still be saved. The important thing is save as much as possible because replacing forests is far harder than preserving it.
NGK: What's the funniest thing that's happened while you've been making the show?
SL: Watching Aggis, one of the orphans, going to the toilet up a tree – right onto Simon our soundman's head!
Orang-utan Diary returns to BBC1 next year!
Photos: Steve Leonard © Adam Chapman, orang-utan images © Borneo Orangutan Survival and © Christian Aslund.