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Orangutan - Source: ONE News -
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Auckland Zoo has had a public goodbye to three of its most loved inhabitants.
Orang-utans Indra, Horst and Intan are moving to Florida to be part of a breeding programme. The trio have been mainstays of Auckland Zoo for a quarter of a century and staff and the public will miss them.
"This week I think I'm just going to have this big kind of thing in my stomach...how are we going to live without them," says keeper Amy Dixon.
Indra, her partner Horst and their daughter Intan will be taken in purpose-built enclosures to Los Angeles where they will spend 31 days in quarantine before heading to Busch Garden Zoo in Florida.
"Animals are in zoos because they are a back up population or an insurance population against the wild ones if they become extinct...so for these guys to go to Florida, Horst will be bumped up to number 1 in that genetic stud book there," says Dixon.
And extinction is a real possibility for the great apes. The $40 billion palm oil industry could force them from the wild within a decade.
Keeper Courtenay Eparvier says it's a really harsh reality. "You start thinking about the numbers and the time and you just can't believe that an iconic animal such as an orang-utan could become extinct in our lifetime...it's pretty sad."
Dixon says there have already been many tears and the zoo has someone on tissue and rescue remedy duty.
"It's going to be a hard day, but we just have to focus on the end result."
