DNA testing to begin for Safariworld orangutans

[Guest guest]

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PRESS RELEASE

 

 

DNA tests to begin for Safariworld orangutans

 

 

17th September 2004

 

On Monday the 19th of September, the DNA checking of the allegedly illegally

imported juvenile orangutans being held at Safariworld zoo will begin. The

acquisition of hair and blood samples is expected to take five days,

starting at 10.00 a.m. on Monday the 19th of September until Friday the 24th

of September. The DNA tests will finally provide conclusive proof of whether

or not the orangutans were born at Safariworld Zoo as claimed by zoo

representatives, or whether they were illegally imported from Indonesia as

suggested by several wildlife conservation groups.

 

The testing and analysis of results will be carried out at Kasetsart

University and the total costs for all stages of the DNA checking process

will amount to approximately half a million baht ($US 13,000).

 

It is now confirmed that of the 102 orangutans held at Safariworld, only

seven are females of reproductive age and there are only seven males that

are mature enough to successfully father offspring. The claim that the

remaining 88 orangutans, all aged between two to four years old, have all

been captive bred from these individuals at Safariworld over the last few

years is a biological impossibility. However, the DNA testing is necessary

to provide indisputable proof and also to determine which individuals may

have been born at the zoo and which were definitely illegally brought into

Thailand.

 

Police Major General Swake Pinsinchai, Commander of the Forestry Police, is

responsible for overseeing the whole investigation. Roger Lohanan, Director

of the Thai A.G.A., Edwin Wiek, Director of the Wildlife Friends of Thailand

and the Thailand representative of the Borneo Orangutan Survival fund and

Amy Corrigan, a zoologist working with the Wildlife Friends of Thailand,

will act as independent observers of the entire DNA checking process,

starting with the taking of hair and blood samples on Monday morning.

The DNA testing is expected to generate a great deal of international media

interest and extensive press coverage.

 

A spokesperson for Kasetsart university has stated that once the actual DNA

testing of samples begins it will take about thirty days before the results

are confirmed.

 

 

 

ENDS