Adelaide Zoo Orangutan escapes at Adelaide Zoo

[Simon Hampel]

Orangutan escapes at Adelaide Zoo - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Visitors have been evacuated from the Adelaide Zoo after an orangutan escaped from its enclosure.

Staff are trying to secure the area and visitors have been offered a refund.

Ryan Johnston, 11, saw the animal escape.

"It was amazing how he did it, because he actually got a branch, pulled it over the electric fence and then got over," he said.

 

[Simon Hampel]

Orangutan causes zoo evacuation

Orangutan causes zoo evacuation | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au

ADELAIDE Zoo was evacuated this morning after a 62 kilogram orangutan escaped from her enclosure.

Zoo staff said 27-year-old Karta, who is extremely intelligent, used a stick to short circuit electric wires around her enclosure, then piled up some more sticks to climb out.

But she only ventured as far as a surrounding fence, still metres from members of the public.

It was then that she seemed to realise she was somewhere she shouldn't have been and returned to her enclosure.

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta was spotted by a member of the public and although she returned to her enclosure voluntarily, the zoo was evacuated as a safety precaution.

Karta was to be secured inside her night den before the gates would be reopened.

Mr Whitehead said Karta was not aggressive and had not been close to members of the public.

 

[LOU]

Apes seem to be escaping zoos all over the place at the moment.

 

[torie]

Australian zoos seem to be having real trouble keeping their animals contained these days!

 

[taun]

The great thing about this is that the orangutan has probably been sitting on this idea for a while until the opportunity came up for him to try it

 

[zooman]

Aparentley the intelligance of a 7 year old.

There are so many reports coming through of apes and there intelligance. Maybe a new level of understanding on our behalf is soon to follow.