Orang utan dies in freak accident at Singapore Zoo

Straits Times 14 Feb 08;

Tragedy struck the zoo's primates a second time in a week, when a young female orang utan died of a dislocated neck in a freak accident yesterday.

At mid-day, Atina, aged two-and-a-half years, caught her neck in a hanging noose, which was part of a hammock in the apes' enclosure.

Her mother Anita and other orang utans, in their haste to free her, tugged at her neck, dislocating it. She died instantly, said a zoo spokesman.

Zookeepers could not reach Atina on time because her mother kept pushing them away.

All hanging nooses have since been removed from the enclosure.

The death comes just three days after the zoo buried Ah Meng, its matriach and star attraction, who died at age 48 last Friday.

With these two deaths, the zoo is left with 23 orang utans.

Another orang utan dies at Singapore Zoo
Channel NewsAsia 13 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE : Another orang utan has died at the Singapore Zoo.

30-month-old Atina died when her neck snapped after her mother Anita and other orang utans tried to free her from a nylon rope support. Her head was entangled by the rope while she was playing.

The Singapore Zoo said she died instantly.

Atina's mother, Anita, is an orang utan that singer Anita Sarawak found at the doorstep of her condominium in Pandan Valley 23 years ago.

The Zoo said that it is greatly distressed to lose Atina in the freak accident.

The tragedy comes just less than a week after Ah Meng, Singapore's famous orang utan, died of old age. - CNA/de