I don't like to criticise the zoo, but this is just horrific. I appreciate that the undergrowth will grow back but, judging by the freshly cut stumps around the island, more substantial shrubs/trees have been eliminated.
Seeing the damage they had started causing(broken branches mainly)to the trees it was inevitable this was going to happen at some stage. I think the reason they remained undamaged for so long was because Bulu, Senja and Chinta, after years living in cages, didn't use the trees- you hardly ever saw them outside, let alone in a tree. It was only after Demo and Mali arrived that this changed.
The once luxuriant island featured on David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities on Watch last night. He filmed Mali and her daughter Tatau, on a rainy summer's day, poking sticks into holes in a log and a kong and eating durian fruit. Child's play for an orang of Mali's intelligence and expertise. I expect Sir David would be surprised to see how the island looks now. As surprised as the orangs must have been to receive such once-in-a-lifetime enrichment
What is the point of a pond? They are surrounded by water in the moat so it can't be to give them a new dimension. Maybe its more for local wildlife, rather than the Orangutans. And it won't replace the reduced climbing facilities.
Are those nets I see around the base of the trees? I didn't notice that previously.
The pond has appeared naturally. I think the island tends to get waterlogged in the winter and dries up in the summer, but now it doesn't have the living trees to help soak up the water.
The netting is attached to the poles on the small island in the background.
Well, they were beheaded in February 2014 and, as far as I can tell, didn't send out new shoots last year. Time will tell this year. As for the smaller trees and shrubs that have just been 'pruned', the stumps are close to the ground and may send up new shoots in time. It will be a while before the orang infants can practice climbing in them, as Tatau did here:
