MY FAVORITE AMERICAN ESCAPE ARTIST, FU MANCHU, ORANGUTAN:: One balmy night in October 1968, Fu Manchu, an orangutan at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha slipped through a barricade of air ducts, scrambled across a dry moat and sidled up to a locked door. He plucked a wire from underneath his tongue and swiftly picked the lock. After which, Fu Manchu led his family and friends onto the wide walking paths circling the zoo and up a tree or two. When zookeepers arrived at work in the morning, they were stunned to see Fu Manchu and other orangutans hanging out. Fu Manchu’s escapes, as there were several, were widely reported in the Omaha World Herald at the time and discussed around dinner tables in the far reaches of Nebraska, including my family’s dinner table. ‘Who knew,’ my step-father, Leon, said, ‘that animals were so smart?’ Below is a picture by Tom Forster of Willie, Fu Manchu’s son, as there are no known pictures of Fu Manchu available.
