The Toronto Zoo says it has learned how one of its orangutans escaped from its enclosure earlier this week.
Kembali – one of the zoo’s seven Sumatran orangutans – escaped his outdoor habitat on Thursday night, and visited an area “just outside” of it, officials said in a social media post.
According to the zoo, the male orangutan was returned to his enclosure “without incident” thanks to the quick response by staff. They added police were called as a precaution.
Thanks to video and photographs taken from that day, the zoo said in an update on Saturday, it has figured out Kembali’s escape route.
“… (O)ur preliminary investigation shows that Kembali was on one of the towers at the south end of the outdoor habitat when he swung in a cartwheel-like motion from the bottom rope (o-line) to the platform, around the secondary barrier (hot wire) near the top of the tower, and then grabbed a gusset (steel bracket) located under the platform,” the zoo said in an online statement.
From that point, zoo officials add, Kembali could climb down the tower.
In the four-second clip the Toronto Zoo shared online, Kembali can be seen swinging down from the tower’s lower platform toward a gusset underneath.
Grant Furniss, the director of wildlife care at the Toronto Zoo, told CP24 on Friday morning that the zoo consistently runs drills to simulate similar situations, adding Kembali’s escape ended with the “best outcome” possible.
Now, the zoo says it is speaking with international experts to see what modifications it needs to make in order for the 13,000 square-foot outdoor habitat to reopen. The $11-million habitat opened last summer.
The zoo continues to ask guests who took videos at the orangutan habit Thursday evening to contact Graham Birtles at [email protected].
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Phil Tsekouras
