Episode One: Orangutans on the move to Orana Park

This is the first episode of our three part series taking you through the huge personal and logistical endeavour that saw our three Bornean orangutan transferred to their temporary home at Orana Park, Christchurch.

Our male orangutan Charlie, along with our two females Melur and Wanita were successfully anesthetised and crated through a co-ordinated team effort that involved our keepers, vets, maintenance and other key staff members. Our primate team leader Amy with lead senior primate keeper Craig and senior vet An flew to Christchurch to be there for our orangutan's arrival. 

Lots of delicious snacks were prepared in a care package to go with them on their flight including banana – one of their favourites!

Their travel to Orana is part of a two-year staycation while their home and one fifth of our zoo is redeveloped as part of our South-east Asia project. This will see our orangutan return to an immersive new rainforest environment with other South-east Asian species like our Sumatran tigers and Asian small-clawed otter.  

Stay tuned for our next episode tomorrow, where we meet up with our team and orangutan in Christchurch.