Free-range Orangutans
OK, I’m not just crazy about the Jurong Bird Park; I like the Singapore Zoo as well, even though it’s a longer trip to get there. Again, it’s beautifully landscaped and has a lot of shade built into it. There are all kinds of meandering walkways and trees. And sometimes if you look up into the trees, you’ll see a brown and orange face looking down at you, because they have free-range orangutans there.
The Orangs ride to their central spot in the zoo on golf-carts, and the keepers help them onto a scenic place (at right), where they have their pictures taken and eat some fruit. Watermelon and papaya are favorites. Then when they’ve interacted with their adoring fans they climb up a convenient tree and spread out over the zoo, to hang out, swing on branches and snooze on platforms strategically located over the zoo walkways – hence visitors’ amazing luck in spotting them.
Every hour or two a group of orangs comes back down to their picture spot for a snack and to pose with visitors, who pay about $5 for the privilege. It’s a nice little earner for the zoo, and keeps the orangutans front and center, which is a good place for them. Then when the zoo’s ready to close down in the evening the family piles back onto the golf cart and are chauffeuered back to their night quarters. The sight of a bunch of orangutans on a golf cart is well worth the price of admission.