DUTCH ZOO PLANS ONLINE FACILITIES FOR ORANG UTANS

[Guest guest]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1193952006

Hirsute male, redhead, WLTM similar female to send him bananas (no swingers

pls)

MIKE CORDER THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS

 

SINGLE male (red hair, long arms, interests include hanging in trees and

grooming) seeks female for long-distance relationship and possibility of

meeting up in future to help save species.

 

Zookeepers in the Netherlands are planning to hook up Dutch and Indonesian

orang-utans over the internet and believe the link could at some stage be

used as an online dating service where apes could get to know one another

and keepers could work out whether they would be compatible mates.

 

First things first: A romantic dinner for two.

 

" We are going to set up an internet connection between Indonesia and

Apeldoorn so that the apes can see each other and, by means of pressing a

button, be able to give one another food, for example, " said Anouk Ballot, a

spokeswoman for the Apenheul ape park in the central Dutch city of

Apeldoorn.

 

Ms Ballot said the chance of two orang-utans actually mating as a result of

the online interaction was small, due to the problem of transporting them

between the Netherlands and Indonesia.

 

" But I wouldn't rule it out completely, " she added.

 

Ms Ballot said the primary aim of the computer link between Apenheul and an

orang-utan centre on the Indonesian part of Borneo was to raise public

awareness of the apes and their plight.

 

Activists say that the spread of palm oil plantations, coupled with logging,

especially on Malaysian and Indonesian territories on Borneo island, is

threatening animals such as wild orang-utans with extinction by destroying

their native jungle habitat.

 

Ms Ballot said that, in the past, captive orang-utans separated by a wall

have communicated with one another via a mirror placed in front of the two

enclosures.

 

Using webcams and computer screens is an extension of that, she said. She

stressed that only orang-utans who show a natural interest and aptitude will

take part.

 

The Apenheul park has 13 orang-utans among its collection of apes.

 

She admits there is still work to be done to set up the internet connection.

 

 

" We need to find ape-proof cables and screens, " Ms Ballot said, adding that

the zoo hopes to have the orang-utans online by the end of this year or

early 2007.