When it comes to motherhood, orangutans are animals of distinction. An orangutan mother will stay in close contact with her baby for up to nine years—longer than almost all mammals other than humans. Much like humans, orangutans rely on their mothers to learn life skills—such as what to eat and where to find it—before they finally reach independence almost a decade after birth. But unlike humans, orangutan mothers were not known to participate in their offspring's learning; behaving as passive role models rather than active teachers. That is, until a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, uncovered the first evidence yet of active involvement by orangutan mothers in their offspring's skill learning. When orangutan mothers are foraging, they tailor their behavior to match the age and abilities of their offspring, thereby helping their young to socially learn new skills. The study raises the possibility that orangutans perform teaching—a behavior that's rare among animals—and sheds light on the factors that led to the evolution of teaching in humans.