Orangutans mark New Year in style

Orangutans mark New Year in style

JAKARTA (JP): Who says that New Year's Day is only celebrated by human beings? Of our closest primate relatives, 28 orangutans which live in Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta celebrated the coming of 1995 yesterday in their own style.

They rode a small decorated carriage pulled by a pony and ate their favorite foods -- coconuts, bananas, rambutan, peanuts -- and drank aqua and even soda water! Some of them even chewed the paper decorations on their Christmas tree.

The celebration, attended by dozens of expatriates and a few of Indonesians, wasn't only a happy moment for the apes but for children and adults as well who found the orangutans gentle, sweet and harmless. The animals played in Von Mengden's yard where there was a nicely decorated Christmas tree. They also allowed the visitors to touch, carry, and even cuddle them (photo above).

"Today they can eat as much as they want, it's their party," said organizer Ulla Von Mengden.

Von Mengden, who has lived in Indonesia for 28 years and now occupies a house in the zoo compound, told The Jakarta Post that it was the tenth party she had held for the orangutans. Initially she celebrated it with just the orangutans but later started inviting human friends and others interested in the primates.

"Now, whenever I hold such a party, there are many people I don't know who come too. It's good, the more the merrier," said German-born Von Mengden who wishes to be reincarnated as an orangutan.(als)