Three of Auckland zoo's Bornean
orangutans have said goodbye to the keeper they have known for
decades and will travel to Busch Gardens in Florida tomorrow.
Intan, 20, will travel with her mother Indra, 28, and her father
Horst, 31, as they leave at 1am on a Cargolux 747 freight plane
heading to their destination via Los Angeles.
The orangutans will be accompanied by Auckland Zoo primate keeper
Courtney Eparvier and a Busch Gardens vet and curator.
Each orangutan has a purpose-built aluminium crate, weighing
between 200kg and 300kg.
At 118kg, Horst has the largest crate at 1.6m high, 1.6m long and
1.1m wide.
They will be kept in quarantine for 30 days in Los Angeles before
they are transported on to Florida.
The move to the Florida zoo is to help the captive breeding
programme for their species, now endangered in the wild, mostly due
to destruction of their rainforest home for palm oil plantations.
The zoo has four other Bornean orangutans.
Senior primate keeper Christine Tintinger, who has known Indra
since she arrived in Auckland from Rotterdam Zoo as a three-year-old
in 1983, was sad to see them go.
"Indra, Horst and Intan are all incredible animals and have been
a huge part of our zoo family, so it's going to be really sad to see
them go, but it is a positive move
," she said.
"A mum several times over, Indra won't breed again, but Horst
and Intan will. In fact Horst will become the number one ranked male
in the breeding programme in the United States. Their move is also
going to free up more space for our remaining six orangutans, which
will be great," she said.
NZPA