At 33, Nonja the orangutan is nothing if not versatile. After an early career as a painter, she's winning a new audience thanks to her ape's eye, opposable thumbs and a high-tech digital camera. Take a look for yourself on the budding photographer's Facebook page – at last count she had 55,807 fans.
True, the Annie Liebovitz of the primate world may need a little help uploading her pictures, but Nonja snaps them all herself with a camera sponsored by Samsung. Well, almost all: Sometimes she lets her roommates (zoom-mates?) and fellow orangutans, Vladmir and Sol, borrow her lens.
"The orangutans are naturally very intelligent and also very curious. So it's not a surprise that they took to the cameras so well," Dr. Dagmar Schratter, director of the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, told Austrian broadcaster ORF. "We're especially proud that we, as the oldest zoo in the world, took a big step into modernity with Nonja's Facebook account."
Nonja was born in the zoo and was raised by hand. A few years ago, when a zookeeper gave her a paintbrush and colors, she became a prolific artist, creating some 250 works – with one even fetching about $3,000. She eventually gave up her career because pal Vladimir insisted on eating her artwork.
This time around, it's Nonja who gets the treats. For every picture she takes, a feed automat pops out a succulent raisin.
See more artistic animals on PEOPLEPets.com:
Paintings by Renaissance Dog Sammy Fetch Up to $1,700
Alligator Art: Young Gators Tap Into Their Inner Picasso!
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