TWYCROSS ZOO UNDERTAKES WILD ORANG UTAN STUDY

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr Wedderburn,

More information on the following story is available in the

book, 'MOLLY'S ZOO : MONKEY MISCHIEF AT TWYCROSS ZOO' written by Molly Badham,

Nathalie Evans and Maureen Lawless(Pocket Books). Twycross Zoo had sent two

chimpanzees(via the now derelict Southport Zoo) to Alipore Zoo in Kolkata a few

years ago.

Best wishes,

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/state_news/news.php?id=156464 & cat=sbe

September 20, 2005 21:19 PM

 

British Zoologists In Sabah To Learn More About Orang Utans

 

 

 

CARING… Twycross zookeepers Julie Wooley (left) and Ratchell Sellers from

England playing with an Orang utan kept at Rasa Ria Resort Tuaran Zoo in Tuaran,

Tuesday. Pix: Zamain Singkui

 

TUARAN, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Two women zookeepers from England's Twycross Zoo

are in Sabah preparing for a two-week stay to deepen their knowledge of the

orang utans at the primates' Sepilok rehabilitation centre in Sandakan on

Sabah's east coast.

 

Julie Wooley and Ratchell Sellers will leave for the centre, Wednesday under an

exchange programme sponsored jointly by Sabah Wildlife Department and Sepilok

Orang Utan Appeal UK, a British charitable organisation.

 

Wooley said she hoped to learn more about the nutrition and behaviour of the

primates, and also looked forward to cuddling them.

 

" In Twycross, the orang utans live in an enclosed area and the baby orang utans

are cared for by their own mothers but in Sepilok, the orang utan babies

undergoing rehabilitation can be touched and cuddled by visitors, " she told

reporters at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort Nature Reserve, here Tuesday.

 

The 25.6ha nature reserve was established by the resort in collaboration with

the Wildlife Department in June 1996 to promote rehabilitation programmes for

endangered species like the orang utan.

 

Sellers said she was interested to learn more about the orang utan because this

species seemed to be more intelligent and special compared to other primates

like chimpanzees which she took care of in Twycross.

 

Wooley and Sellers will be accompanied by a Sepilok Orang Utan Appeal

primatologist Sheena Hynd who has spent six months in Sepilok studying the

primates.

 

Her project is to establish whether any improvements can be made in the

rehabilitation process of the orang utans in Sepilok and to determine how well

rehabilitated orang utans cope in the wild after their release.

 

" It would take a long time to draw any result from the studies as one has to

follow an orang utan to observe how it lives in the free jungle environment from

dusk to dawn, " she said, adding that not all orang utans liked to be followed or

observed.

 

-- BERNAMA