Yvette is writing a series of blogs about each orangutan at the San Diego Zoo. Her previous blog is titled Janey Exercises Her Keeper.

The orangutans have been very good about participating in the morning exercises on their way out to the San Diego Zoo's Absolutely Apes exhibit. So far Indah, Cinta, Josephine, Satu, and Janey have gone through. This leaves Karen and Clyde. It is close to 9 a.m. and so far the siamangs have decided not to sing and I haven't heard Unkie warming his voice up, which he does by making "ump" noises and inflating his throat sac.

So on that non-note, we'll send Karen out next.

Karen is in the third bedroom from the chute that leads to the exhibit and right next door to Clyde. Depending on what kind of mood she is in, she'll either go straight for the chute or not. Sometimes Karen gets upset that she was not released onto exhibit first. How do I know? The first clue tends to be when she tries to spit water at me every time I walk by her room when releasing the other orangutans. This can become pretty tricky since one of the hallway door controls is located right in front of her bedroom. That means I am an easy target for a few seconds. If she's just slightly upset, I can reassure her that her turn is soon by rubbing her stomach. If she's more upset, I have to dodge the stream of water heading my way. She's got pretty good aim, too!

Other times, Karen may not be quite ready to go out yet, so she visits Clyde for a few minutes since they share a small section of the back hallway. She'll just sit there and kind of look at what's in his room, probably comparing bedroom items. Once she is ready, she calmly meanders down the hallway and stops before entering the chute. Karen usually waits for me to get in position to ask her to enter the chute. We both know what we are supposed to do and she plays it by the rules.

Karen is a funny girl. She's smart, cute, has beautiful light colored eyes, and wants things done her way. She stations in the chute but doesn't want the door closed. If she wants her stomach rubbed, she pushes it forward and does this up and down half jumping motion. I rub her tummy. Then I can ask for all her behaviors: station, hand, foot, mouth, open, turn around, ear, shoulder. She's good and knows what she's doing: training me. She likes the fruit as a reward but I think she likes the attention the most.

Once we are done, I open the door to the exhibit and she runs back towards the hallway! Then she scoots forward, tries to see if there is anything interesting going on outside. Then, sometimes, something grabs her attention and she's out in seconds. Other times, she decides she's not ready and sits in the hallway. It's her choice. If she decides to stay, I leave the door to the exhibit open and start bringing the next orangutan down the hallway. Usually Karen has left before we get to the chute, but not always. If she's still there, I close the door to the exhibit, then bring the next orangutan to the chute, while Karen hangs out in the hallway. Lately she's been leaving:, the days are nice and there are fun exhibit things to do.

It's very close to 9 a.m. now and only Clyde is left. I wonder what he'll do?

Yvette Kemp is a senior mammal keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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