Showing posts with label orangutans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orangutans. Show all posts
Baby orangutan makes first Madrid zoo appearance
The first baby orangutan to be born in captivity in 20 years at the Madrid zoo has made its first public appearance.The 9-month-old primate named Boo cuddled a stuffed animal -- a bright yellow orangutan -- as it was unveiled by a keeper Thursday.
Boo's mother died of lung disease in late February, but Boo has been adopted by another female orangutan and is bottle fed by one of the keepers.
Source
Photograph by: ANDREA COMAS, REUTERS
Meet me at the swimming hole
These incredible pictures of orangutans swimming in an Indonesian
river have left wildlife experts stunned.
Playing on the Rungan River, near to Palas Island on Borneo, these
orangutans can be seen swimming and submerging themselves in the muddy
waters.
For experts the behaviour of these orangutans – who like all apes have
a natural fear of water because of predators such as crocodiles -
could prove to be a significant step forward in their evolution.
“This is a rarity – to see orangutans coming down for a swim is
unheard of in the wild,” says Simon Husson – project advisor and
scientific consultant for Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation.
“However, we know that orangutans are intelligent and innovative."
Source
river have left wildlife experts stunned.
Playing on the Rungan River, near to Palas Island on Borneo, these
orangutans can be seen swimming and submerging themselves in the muddy
waters.
For experts the behaviour of these orangutans – who like all apes have
a natural fear of water because of predators such as crocodiles -
could prove to be a significant step forward in their evolution.
“This is a rarity – to see orangutans coming down for a swim is
unheard of in the wild,” says Simon Husson – project advisor and
scientific consultant for Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation.
“However, we know that orangutans are intelligent and innovative."
Source
Caution : Possible cute overdose
The following photos are from the Daily Mail's story about the Infant Care Unit at Bukit Merah Lake Town Resort - dubbed Orang-Utan Island - located in the Malaysian jungle. It is a very special hospital because all of its patients are from the endangered Borneo species of orangutans, the Pongo Pygmaeus.
Video: Borneo Apes - Malaysia
By some estimates, Borneo's vast forests are being cleared faster than the Amazon. Unless something is done now, Orangutans could be extinct in 20 years.
The practice of bulldozing everything to make way for palm oil plantations has left Orang-utans without their customary habitat.
Lone Droescher-Nieslen from the Orangutan Survival Foundation hopes she can rehabilitate the Orangutans back into the wild. But if the rate of deforestation continues, there may soon be no forests to release them into...
Watch the video
The practice of bulldozing everything to make way for palm oil plantations has left Orang-utans without their customary habitat.
Lone Droescher-Nieslen from the Orangutan Survival Foundation hopes she can rehabilitate the Orangutans back into the wild. But if the rate of deforestation continues, there may soon be no forests to release them into...
Watch the video
Care for Apes
What happens to performing primates once they're past their prime? The lucky ones end up in facilities like the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, FL.
Brenda Scott Royce, in the Huffington Post, writes,
Currently, the Center houses forty-three apes, fourteen orangutans and twenty-nine chimpanzees, ranging in age from one to forty-six years. These great apes live in enriching environments and habitats, provided with proper nutrition and companionship and with their own species. They live in large 34-foot tall outdoor habitats with lots of climbing apparatus, swings, and enrichment toys. They sleep in attached heated nighthouses strong enough to withstand Florida hurricanes. The sanctuary is located in South Central Florida on 100 wooded acres surrounded by orange groves.
Pebbles is one of the Center for Great Apes current residents. She arrived at the Center in December 2004 from a California trainer compound where she was worked as an infant in the entertainment business. She still had a few years of working ability ahead of her, but her owner decided to stop working great apes in shows and commercials.
Pebbles loves to swing on vines in her enclosure, play in tubs of water, and wrestle with her orangutan roommates. One of her favorite enrichment activities is painting. Not only will she paint on paper or canvas given to her, Pebbles also enjoys covering herself with nontoxic paint!
via L.A. Unleashed
Brenda Scott Royce, in the Huffington Post, writes,
" Apes in showbiz have a short shelf life.The primary purpose of the Center for Great Apes is to provide a permanent sanctuary in a safe and enriching environment for orangutans and chimpanzees in need of long-term life care … specifically those who have been used in entertainment, kept as pets by private owners, or served as research subjects.
The average performing chimp begins his career around age 2. By 7 or 8, when he's no longer the tractable trainee he once was, he's put out to pasture.
Owners tend to not want to keep apes that have outlived their earning potential, and since apes can live into their 50s, that means they'll require decades of care after their careers end. And that care is expensive -- roughly $10,000 a year for a single ape. And while typically everyone involved with a film -- from cast and crew to producers, studios, distributors, investors and exhibitors -- makes money, nothing is put aside for the animals' future. "
Currently, the Center houses forty-three apes, fourteen orangutans and twenty-nine chimpanzees, ranging in age from one to forty-six years. These great apes live in enriching environments and habitats, provided with proper nutrition and companionship and with their own species. They live in large 34-foot tall outdoor habitats with lots of climbing apparatus, swings, and enrichment toys. They sleep in attached heated nighthouses strong enough to withstand Florida hurricanes. The sanctuary is located in South Central Florida on 100 wooded acres surrounded by orange groves.
Pebbles is one of the Center for Great Apes current residents. She arrived at the Center in December 2004 from a California trainer compound where she was worked as an infant in the entertainment business. She still had a few years of working ability ahead of her, but her owner decided to stop working great apes in shows and commercials.Pebbles loves to swing on vines in her enclosure, play in tubs of water, and wrestle with her orangutan roommates. One of her favorite enrichment activities is painting. Not only will she paint on paper or canvas given to her, Pebbles also enjoys covering herself with nontoxic paint!
via L.A. Unleashed
Orangutan goes on rampage at zoo restaurant
The latest incident at the Shaoshan Zoo in the southern city of Kaohsiung began when an orangutan pushed his way out of his cage and wandered into a nearby restaurant courtyard.As zoo officials scurried to bring the animal under control, he gleefully overturned picnic tables and motorbikes, forcing terrified diners to cower inside the eatery.
The orang-utan was finally subdued when an official shot him in the upper body with a a stun gun.
He was then carted off for treatment in the scoop of a small bulldozer.
Incident occurred just six weeks after a 200-kilogram (440-pound) crocodile chewed the forearm off veterinarian Chang Po-yu at the same zoo.
Best Friends: Tiger, Orangutan Babies
A pair of month-old Sumatran tiger twins have become inseparable playmates with a set of young orangutans, an unthinkable match in their natural jungle habitat in Indonesia's tropical rainforests.
The friendship between 5-month-old female baby primates Nia and Irma, and cubs Dema and Manis, has blossomed at the Taman Safari zoo where they share a room in the nursery.
After being abandoned by their mothers shortly after birth, the four play fight, nipping and teasing each other, and cuddling up for a shared nap when they are worn out.
"This is unusual and would never happen in the wild," said zoo keeper Sri Suwarni, bottle-feeding a baby chimp on Wednesday. "Like human babies, they only want to play."
The four have lived side-by-side for a month without a single act of hostility, she said.
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