The incident occurred at Kasang Kulim Zoo in Riau province, Indonesia, on June 6. According to a witness at the scene, a young man visited the zoo with his friends. When arriving at the orangutan’s cage, this person deliberately jumped and teased, even kicking his feet in front of the animal, making it angry.
Zoo staff later confirmed the incident. They said the young man was identified as 19-year-old Hasan Arifin. While the female orangutan Tina is considered to have a gentle nature. Images from the camera show that at first the young man appeared to carelessly approach Tina’s cage to tease her.
Suddenly, the animal grabbed Hasan’s shirt tightly and struggled pulled towards me with his big, strong arms. The frightened young man could only scream for help. A friend who was accompanying him ran to assist in the rescue. Even with help, Hasan still could not escape the hands of the female orangutan. The 19-year-old boy was also pulled forcefully towards the iron cage and was almost bitten. After struggling for a while, he was able to escape.
“The incident stemmed from the behavior of the tourist. He jumped over the railing of the animal’s cage to record video without permission from zoo staff. Afterwards, the tourist violated the rules by intentionally kicking his leg playfully and it attacked him again,” a zoo employee said.
The young man has now admitted his mistake and apologize for my foolish actions.
Orangutans belong to the primate order in Asia that still exists. They are large animals that live more in trees than on the ground, adapting to life tropical island of Borneo (Malaysia) and Sumatra (Indonesia). This is the closest species to humans both physically and intellectually.
According to experts, orangutans are about 7 times stronger than humans. With long, muscular arms, they can lift 3 times their body weight. This animal has faced the risk of extinction since 1998. The number of individuals has decreased by 80% in the past 75 years. Now there are only about 7,000 animals left living on the forest edge of northern Sumatra island, Indonesia and 50,000 animals on Borneo island Malaysia. It is known that Orangutans can live up to 60 years in captivity.
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