Hail Lord Monboddo

Who says we are losing expertise in engineering?:

An Australian zoo was evacuated after an "ingenious" orang-utan
escaped from her enclosure by short-circuiting an electric fence today.

Staff
at Adelaide zoo said 137lb (62kg) Karta used a stick to short-circuit
the electric wires around her enclosure before piling up some more
sticks to climb out.

But the 27-year-old ape only ventured as far
as a surrounding fence, still metres from members of the public, during
her 30 minutes of freedom.

The zoo's curator, Peter Whitehead,
said she seemed to realise she was somewhere she was not supposed to be
and returned to her enclosure.

Here is the story.  I was intrigued to read this:

Burnett also examined feral children and was the only thinker of his
day to accept them as human rather than monsters. He viewed in these
children the ability to achieve reason.