Tobacco addicted orangutan

An orangutan in Malaysia often falls into a state of lethargy and anger if not smoked. So decision officials force it to give up this unusual behavior.

AP reported that Malaysian authorities confiscated Shirley, the name of the female orangutan, from a zoo in the southern city of Johor Bahru last week after discovering it and many other animals living in hardship and suffering. mistreat.

Nature Alert, a British nature protection group, informed Malaysian authorities about Shirley's miserable situation earlier this year. Nature Alert conservationists see visitors regularly throw cigarettes at Shirley's barn. They said Shirley seemed to fall into a negative state - like being lethargic, irritable - when not smoking.

Shirley is now being cared for at a zoo called Melaka and it will be taken to the wildlife protection center on Borneo in the next few weeks.

Ahmad Azhar Mohammed, director of the Melaka Zoo, said Shirley would no longer be offered cigarettes because 'smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans'.

'I am not saying that this orangutan is addicted to tobacco, but it can be addictive if it continues to imitate the smoking behavior of visitors to the zoo , ' Mohammed said.

Experts don't know when Shirley started smoking cigarettes. Officials estimate it is about 20 years old. Orangutans can live up to 60 years in captivity.

Many other countries, such as South Africa and Russia, have also found cases of primates smoking by visitors throwing cigarettes into their stables.