Orangutan removed from zoo after becoming addicted to cigarettes
An orangutan in Malaysia has been removed from a state-run zoo after authorities found out she had become addicted to cigarettes.
'Shirley' the 25-year-old adult orangutan started smoking after Jahor zoo visitors started throwing cigarette butts into her enclosure.
She and her cage-mate Abu competed for cigarette butts thrown by tourists to satisfy their smoking habits.
Shirley used to spend much of her time tearing apart drink cans and chewing on food wrappers thrown in her enclosure.
Her plight was alerted to authorities after a British-based activist group Nature Alert wrote to Malaysian officials.
She has now been rescued and sent her to another zoo in a neighbouring state.
According to The Guardian, the director of Melaka Zoo, Ahmad Azhar Mohammed, said they weren't giving Shirley any more cigarettes because "smoking is not normal behaviour for orangutans".
"I would say she is not addicted, but she might have formed a habit after mimicking human beings who were smoking around her," Ahmad said.
So far she isn't showing any signs of depression from going cold turkey. Results from her blood tests aren't yet available.
It's expected she will be sent to a wildlife centre on Borneo within weeks.
The zoo where Shirley lived hit headlines earlier in the year because of the appalling conditions animals were living in.
It's believed crocodiles live in water-less enclosures while other animals were kept in cages barely large enough to contain them.
Despite government efforts to clamp down on these appalling conditions, rated among the worst in the world, little progress has been made.
