Orangutans All Over the News

(UK) Britain's energy providers are soon to be putting a squeeze on orangutans and other animals on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Plans are in the works to use palm oil, from plantations carved out of the rain forest, as a biofuel for power plants.

Conservationists are concerned at the loss of primary forest in Sumatra and Borneo and elsewhere, to make way for plantations. New plantations result in large losses of wildlife and are blamed for imperilling the future of the tree-dwelling orangutan, which could become extinct in the wild in 20 years.

Environmental groups are opposed to the palm oil plan. A Greenpeace spokesman, James Turner, said palm oil could be worse than coal and oil. Interestingly, the palm oil scheme is considered an environmental initiative.


(Australia) Also making news is the report of a great orangutan escape yesterday from the Adelaide Zoo in Australia. The 136-pound orangutan named Karta, 27, defeated an electrified fence and used a makeshift ladder to escape to a grassy area adjacent to the public.

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta had twisted a stick into hot wires that encircled her enclosure, short circuiting the wires and allowing her to enter a vegetated area near the concrete and glass fence that separated her from the public.

She then piled up sticks, grass and plant roots and used them to climb onto the fence.

"You're talking about an animal that's highly intelligent," Mr Whitehead told journalists outside the zoo gates.

Karta perched on top of the fence for about 30 minutes before climbing back down into the enclosure. The zoo was closed for the rest of the day.


(Germany) And another orangutan report comes from Germany. At the Heidelberg Zoo, a 14-year-old ape named Ujian has attracted attention after teaching himself to whistle and recording his first song on a CD. The CD is titled "Ich Bin Ujian" ("I Am Ujian") and it goes on sale at the zoo in June.

The song, a jaunty pop-rock number with reggae elements, features Ujian's melodic whistling as a background element. The lyrics, sung by Tobias Kämmerer, follow a similarly self-aggrandizing stance as the classic "I Wan'na Be Like You" sung by the orangutan King Louie in the animated movie "The Jungle Book," with the chorus including the lines: "I am Ujian the orangutan, I am so cool, man, I'm a star."

A few other orangutans have taught themselves to whistle, typically mimicking people who whistle in their presence. In any event, it's kind of a big deal.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.