JAKARTA GLOBE (Indonesia)
The Jakarta Globe reported that Indonesian zookeepers moved Tori the smoking orangutan to an isolated island in the Taru Jurung Zoo this week to help the female primate kick her nicotine habit, zoo officials said.
@TammyLeitner: Smoking orangutan is moved to island in Indonesia to kick her habit. Seriously??? Check out the photo. twitter.com/TammyLeitner/s…
— Gilbert Zermeno (@Photog5i) July 27, 2012
The female orangutan started smoking by imitating zoogoers, picking up discarded butts that were still lit.
Tori was moved to an island that is more comfortable and closer to her natural habitat, alongside her male orangutan “boyfriend” Didik who would stamp out smoking butts.
“A common problem for zoos in Indonesia are naughty visitors,” Lilik Kristianto, the director of the zoo in Solo, Central Java told the Jakarta Globe. “Although there are signs prohibiting them from giving food or cigarettes to the animals, they keep on doing it. It is not rare that visitors even hurt the animals.”
There are four endangered orangutans in the Taru Jurung Zoo.