orangutan often spotted smoking cigarettes given to her by zoo visitors is
being forced to kick the habit, a Malaysian wildlife official said Monday.
Government authorities seized the adult ape
named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia’s southern Johor state last week
after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor
conditions.
Shirley is now being quarantined at another
zoo in a neighboring state and is expected to be sent to a Malaysian wildlife
center on Borneo Island within weeks.
Melaka Zoo Director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed
said Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because
“smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans.”
“I would say she is not addicted …
but she might have formed a habit after mimicking human beings who were smoking
around her,” Ahmad told The Associated Press.
Shirley was so far displaying a regular
appetite for food and no obvious signs of depression or illness, Ahmad said.
Results from her blood tests and other detailed health examinations were not
yet available.
Nature Alert, a British-based activist
group, wrote to Malaysian officials about Shirley earlier this year, saying
conservationists who visited the Johor zoo often saw people throwing lit
cigarettes to her in a pit-like enclosure.
The group said Shirley seemed to suffer
severe mood swings, sometimes looking drowsy and on other occasions appearing
“very agitated” without a cigarette.
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