News
Careless zoo claims another life — motherless orangutan drowns
The Dehiwala zoo’s baby orangutan, aged about five years, drowned last week in the moat that surrounds its den. It was alone in its den on the night of April 21.
Its mother, too, died last December. As a rule, animals that spend the day in larger, open enclosures are caged at night for safety reasons, but this baby orangutan had refused to go into the cage. The curator had let the orangutan stay in the open enclosure and had asked a zookeeper to watch over it.
In happier times: Richie with its mother in 2017 (Pic courtesy Dehiwala zoo Facebook Page)
The zookeeper says the orangutan was seen in the middle of the den at about 5:30 am. He had left the area and when he returned, the orangutan was missing. Zoo staff noticed it had drowned. The lifeless body was taken to the zoo hospital.
The director general of the Zoological Gardens, Dr. Thilak Premakantha said the zookeeper was interdicted and the curators has been transferred to other sections.
“It is clear that there is some negligence, so an investigation has started and those responsible will be punished,” Dr. Premakantha said. A mechanism to make sure all animals in open enclosures are caged at night would be implemented. A risk assessment is being made.
Named Richie, the orangutan was born in 2017 to mother Aki and father Ufo.
The pair was received from Indonesia’s Ragunan Zoo. This pair had given birth to a male in 2010. It was named Sakiffo. The occasion was celebrated as the birth of the first orangutan baby in Dehiwala in 28 years.
Orangutans are a critically endangered great ape found in Indonesia and Malaysia where zoologists believe only about 60,000 are living in the wild. Few hundred of orangutans are in captivity in zoos and the information of these animals is maintained in a global registry called studbook. The orangutan studbook managed by a zoo in the United States indicates that Sri Lanka has received seven orangutans since the 1970s and has recorded four births. 
Animal welfare activists allege that the national zoo is incapable of looking after animals and that many face untimely deaths.
The real causes that led to the death of the orangutan must be addressed, they say, rather than just punishing only a guard.
There are concerns that the zoo operation is corrupt and its management politicised. The most recent director, Shermila Rajapaksha, was removed after a dispute with zoo workers.
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