Orangutan short-circuits fence in zoo breakout

[Earthling]

Witnesses say an orangutan used a branch to short-circuit an electric fence before making its escape from an enclosure at Adelaide Zoo.
"This animal has a history of trying to outsmart and be a little bit smarter, and she's an animal which has caused lots of keepers a lot of late hours," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/10/2565795.htm



After all the evidence coming forth from scientists that Orangutans can think and feel...yes consciousness...It saddens me when I read the above news article, to show how much the Orangutan wants to escape the enforced human confinement, but no matter how hard it thinks and puts its escape plans into effect, humans will continue to outsmart it and keep it captive for human pleasure.....the human delusion of arrogance.

 

[hughligen]

yeah but who's to say that that orangutan wasn't saved from loggers or something?

not disagreeing that it should not be kept in captivity. Just giving a different point of view.

 

[Ned_fisch]

Good point earthling, yet again, isnt that pretty much the same for all captive animals taken from the wild?

 

[Drazzy]

Smart ape now give it a typewriter and it will start reciting poetry. :lol:

 

[Kirby]

kinda like how your snakes try and escape?

 

[Ersatz]

I like this comment on the article..

"Perhaps they should let her run the country. She seems to be capable of assessing a situation, making a decision and acting upon it...qualities our members of state and federal parliaments seem to lack."

 

[kandi]

smart girl

 

[Sdaji]

Good thing they'll soon be extinct in the wild; it wouldn't be long before they overthrew us otherwise. We should turn a blind eye to the poaching until they're all gone.

As for the captive ones, if they're so bored we could teach them to smoke cigarettes, and once they're hooked they won't want to escape from the source of their drugs. It'll keep them entertained, it'll keep them from trying to escape, and it will be even more entertaining for the zoo visitors. For an even more dramatic show we could chain them up, put them in sacks, dump them in a glass case full of water, lock the case and see if they can solve that puzzle.


(entirely facetious, but many won't notice and in this weather I could use the flames)

 

[LauraM]

"New theory of evolution: apes evolved from man"
haha

Clever ape.. if i ever go there ill be sure to help her get over the second fence

 

[Dooley]

Orangutans are extremely smart animals... and this is not the first time stuff like that has happened... in zoo's around the world Member of the Great Ape Families have been out smarting zoo keepers and escaping from their enclosures... I study Zoology at Uni and was lucky enough to get Prac with a mob called OHP (Orangutan Health Project) in Indonesia last year.. When studing them in the wild it is extremely Obvious exactly how smart they are.. such as using tools and cups and when we would come incontact with them in the wild they are extremely Inquisitive it seamed they studied you more then you studied them.. Keeping them in captivity is asentual for there survival... It not only allows us to study them further then we possibly could in the wild but it also is alot easier to educate people about them.. I am all for places like Zoos keeping Critically Endanged animals in Capitvity...