Perth zoo is conducting a security review of its award-winning orangutan enclosure after one curious inhabitant managed to escape and mingled with human visitors in the public viewing area on Sunday.
Teliti, a five-year-old female orangutan who was born at the zoo, appears to have climbed up one of the exhibit’s shade sails about 11.30am before jumping to the outer wall of the enclosure and climbing onto the boardwalk.
It wasn’t an expected method of escape.
“She actually jumped from her exhibit, and jumping is a very unusual activity for orangutans – it’s not something they usually do,” Danielle Henry, a spokeswoman for Perth zoo, told Guardian Australia.
“She then went for a bit of a wander along the visitor boardwalk, then decided it was much better to be with her orangutan family and climbed back into the enclosure.”
Teliti our curious 5 yr old orang went for a stroll earlier she's now back with her family #NaughtyCorner #5YearOlds pic.twitter.com/AJxDgETDKa
— Perth Zoo (@PerthZoo) July 26, 2015
Keepers then coaxed the young orangutan into her night enclosure for a check-up, but found she was none the worse. Henry said that they weren’t sure exactly when she made her escape but she hadn’t been on the boardwalk for more than a few minutes.
“Our keepers had just checked her, so she clearly made the most of her opportunities when our back was turned,” he said. “She was actually having a grand old time and really enjoyed her Sunday stroll. She was really calm and behaving exactly normal when she got back to the zoo.
“She’s a very curious youngster, she’s very gregarious. She is a little bit of a ratbag and that runs within that family line, they’re all a little bit boisterous.”
It’s the second time an orangutan has escaped from its enclosure at an Australian zoo this month, prompting questions about whether they are mobilising.
“I do wonder if the orangutans in Melbourne had a chat to our guys here; it’s a very, very rare event,” Henry said.
On July 13, Malu, an 11-year-old male orangutan, prompted a lockdown at Melbourne zoo when he managed to get into an area reserved for the public.
It is also the second time an orangutan has escaped in Perth. In 2009, Pulang, a then 15-year-old female whose name translates to “come home”, pulled one of the ropes in the exhibit free of its moorings and used it to swing into the public viewing area, in what zookeepers at the time referred to as “a planned escape”. The zoo was evacuated while Pulang was coaxed back to her enclosure.
