Indy Zoo to raise awareness with new orangutan exhibit

The Indianapolis Zoo announced it is planning to open a new orangutan exhibit in 2014 featuring eight of the endangered apes.

Dr. Robert Schumaker, the vice president of life sciences at the zoo and one of the world’s foremost orangutan experts, will oversee the project.

“The International Orangutan Center will provide the apes with a rich and complex environment perfectly suited to their needs. It will quite simply be the best zoo habitat for orangutans in the world,” Shumaker said. “Zoo visitors will marvel at the orangutans’ grace, abilities and intellect and will hopefully feel compelled to take action to protect their future in the wild.”

Zoo guests will be able to experience the orangutans in a way “like no other,” according to a press release from the zoo. The habitat will feature multiple ways to view the primates, including from the ground at close range and from aerial cable rides above.

The habitat will feature an interior and exterior interpretation of a rainforest environment and will stimulate the normal range of orangutan behavior, according to the press release.

“At the same time, it will maximize visitor interaction with the apes, allowing better understanding of their styles of locomotion, social behavior and mental abilities,” the press release said.

Native to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in southeast Asia, orangutans are among the most endangered of primates, with approximately 70,000 orangutans left in the wild. The intelligent, arboreal apes are victims of deforestation and capture into the pet trade, the zoo said.

Orangutans are among few creatures that are self-aware, being able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Their intelligence is also demonstrated by their problem-solving ability, capacity for learning and distinct cultures in the wild. They are also capable of communicating with humans using sign language.

The exhibit will feature a towering, 150-foot-high “Beacon of Hope” that will shine during the night. The beacon will represent hope for the survival of orangutans, the zoo said.

It will also feature a network of ropes and bridges that will allow the orangutans to move from place to place — including above visitors’ heads. Orangutans are naturally nomadic, so this network will allow the apes to travel as they do in the wild.

There will also be “oases” that will allow the orangutans to escape from the view of the public if they’re feeling shy.

The orangutan habitat will be funded by a $30 million fundraiser that will also go to funding the zoo’s new tiger exhibit, renovations to the lion exhibit allowing more up-close views of the lions, a new bird exhibit allowing more interaction with the feathered creatures and reconstruction of the zoo’s main entrance.

— Zach Ammerman