A woman’s zoo visit took an unexpected turn when a baby orangutan became captivated by her nails, leaving her unable to step away from the exhibit.
Harley, who posts on TikTok as @harley.colqui, recently visited Utah’s Hogle Zoo with a fresh set of acrylic nails she did herself when she paused at the orangutan enclosure, she told Newsweek. She placed her hand against the glass, where a young orangutan sat inches away on the other side, which sparked a precious interaction she shared in a February 22 video.
As the animal leaned closer, Harley realized the colorful nails had caught the baby orangutan’s attention. She pressed her nails against the glass to give the animal a better look at both hands. Harley said she had red, white and black Spiderman nails. The baby moved closer with her mouth and eyes wide open in amazement, inspecting each nail.
“I was there for a good 15 minutes, I’d say,” Harley said.
The reaction left Harley speechless, as she called it the best day of her life. The text on the video reads: “Not to brag or anything, but the baby orangutan likes my nails so I’m cooler.”
And TikTok users couldn’t agree more. The clip has struck a chord online, amassing over 960,000 views, 255,800 likes, and 451 comments as of Wednesday, with viewers enchanted by the young orangutan’s fixation on Harley’s colorful nails.
“That baby said, ‘Hold up, those are nice, let me see them better, Ooooh yes, very nice!'” commented one user.
“This is the flex you think it is,” another commenter said.
A third person joked: “I always have fun nails on the (very, very, very) off chance I run into Pedro Pascal because he loves fun manicures, and this is way cooler!”
How Orangutans See Color, Respond to People
Orangutans, like other great apes, have keen color vision and a natural curiosity about their surroundings, which may help explain why the baby became so focused on Harley’s brightly painted nails.
Scientists believe primate color vision evolved in part to help fruit-eating species detect ripe foods or young leaves among dense green foliage, making bright visual contrasts especially noticeable in their environment—a trait highlighted in research published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. This ability, known as trichromatic vision, gives many primates, including great apes such as orangutans, a biological advantage in navigating visually complex forest habitats.
At the same time, research suggests orangutans are highly sensitive to social cues during interaction. A 2015 study published in the journal PeerJ examining their facial expressions found that the animals produced more intense and complex movements when a play partner was paying attention to them, indicating that their behavior can be shaped by engagement and context rather than by simple reflex. Together, these traits may help explain why a young orangutan might become captivated by a human with brightly colored nails, responding to both the unusual visual stimulus and the social exchange unfolding in front of it.
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