Orangutans kickbox and parade in bikinis for cheering tourists

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 6:14 PM on 10th April 2010

Dressed in garish shorts and boxing gloves, orangutans trade punches and spin-kick each other in a boxing ring.

Horrifying footage shows cheering tourists drawn to the barbaric sport at a theme park called Safari World on the outskirts of Bangkok in Thailand.

The same company was banned from doing exactly the same thing just six years ago.

Orangutans kickbox in front of cheering tourists at Safari World on the outskirts of Bangkok

While an orangutan pretends to be knocked out of the boxing ring, others, dressed in bikinis are trained as round card girls and bell ringers.

The apes kickbox each other as a spectacle for tourists in a show lasting more than 30 minutes, before being returned to their dark cages. It is not known how many orangutans have been captured and trained by Safari World.

Animal campaigners say the apes - weighing up to 250lbs - could do themselves serious damage in the boxing ring.

They warn it is hastening the end of the orangutan, which experts claim could be extinct in the wild in several years.

Other orangutans are dressed in bikinis and trained as round card girls and bell ringers

Dr Grainne McEntee, head of operations at Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), said: 'It is heartbreaking that such practices still go on.

'Increasing awareness of the impact of deforestation in the Western world is crucial to helping bring this trade to an end.'

He said the continued devastation of the Bornean rainforest fuels this illegal trade in orangutans, both as pets and for use in entertainment.

In 2004, the Thai government banned Safari World from conducting these controversial shows after the centre was found to be using illegally smuggled orangutans from Indonesia.

An orangutan lies in the ring, pretending to be knocked out. Animal campaigners say the apes - weighing up to 250lbs - could do themselves serious damage

The issue was exposed by Monkey World in Dorset and after Safari World was closed 48 orangutans were rescued and taken to a refuge in Nyaru Menteng, Indonesian Borneo.

BOS, which cares for 1,000 orangutans at the refuge, was instrumental in the successful repatriation.

'When they arrived in Nyaru Menteng they always protected their face and head whenever people tried to get closer to them, said Hardi, the assistant project manager. 'Maybe, because their trainers often beat them.

'But no longer do they cover their faces and head as they have started trusting us.'

According to the staff at the project, the orangutans are healthy and disease-free.

Victory? The 'winning' orangutan poses with a champion's belt while the loser lies on the floor pretending to be knocked out

Dr Grainne said: 'These orangutans now enjoy a semi-wild life on one of the islands close to the project.

'We will soon release some of these rehabilitated orangutans back to safe protected rainforest - a future we strive towards for all the orangutans.'

Wild orangutans are now only found in the jungles of Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Sumatran species is critically endangered while the Bornean species is endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1264865/Orangutans-kickbox-parade-bikinis-cheering-tourists.html