Orangutan awareness week runs from 12-18 November
If this thread isn't ok, Michela, pls accept my apologies
Wednesday 14th November 2012
Orange for Orangutan Day
Orangutan Awareness Week takes place every November to draw attention to the challenges faced by wild orangutans and their rainforest home and to highlight how ordinary people can help both, including by fund-raising. To encourage the widest possible UK participation, the Orangutan Foundation names one day of each Orangutan Awareness Week as Orange For Orangutan Day© – a time when groups and individuals can demonstrate how much they care, by adding orange zest to everyday life.
For 2012, Awareness Week takes place from Monday 12th November to Sunday 18th November. Orange For Orangutan Day© is Wednesday 14th November.
http://www.orangutan.org.uk/press-and-media/316-orange-for-orangutan-day-2012
To support Orangutan Awareness Week, for every person that likes Beck Wanderer's Facebook page by the 18th November,
she will donate £1 (approx $1.5 AUD) to the Orangutan Foundation UK*
Also during Orangutan Awareness week her blog will turn bright orange.
According to Beck's blog: "I fell in love with orangutans in 2006, when I volunteered with the Orangutan Foundation UK in Indonesian, Borneo. I spent a few days at Camp Leakey, which is a research and rehabilitation centre for orangutans. I got to hang around with these amazing creatures without them being behind bars – well the youngsters and the females, the alpha males I stayed a very safe distance from."
https://www.facebook.com/beckwanderer
Very sad to see this news.
by Pam W.: We are devastated!! The Los Angeles Zoo is saddened to announce that Minyak, our 31-year-old male Orangutan, passed away yesterday. Minyak was undergoing a routine check-up to assess a chronic respiratory illness he has lived with since infancy called air sacculitis. The orangutan was under the care of both zoo veterinarians and his pulmonologist when he suffered from cardiac and respiratory arrest and could not be resuscitated despite valiant efforts.
It was Minyak’s poor health that brought him to the L.A. Zoo in Dec. 2001 from his home at Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, GA, a behavioral research facility. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan program, which makes recommendations for placement of endangered animals at accredited zoos to ensure genetic diversity, was searching for a positive environment for Minyak. When L.A. Zoo officials heard that Minyak was in need of a good place to live, they offered to care for the animal despite his ongoing medical condition. It was believed that with Southern California’s drier climate and the high caliber orangutan facility, Red Ape Rain Forest, the L.A. Zoo would be a perfect place for him to thrive.
After arriving at the L. A. Zoo, Minyak’s condition improved for some time, but his problems resurfaced causing his veterinarians and pulmonologist to search for a long-term cure. Utilizing the resources of numerous human surgeons and veterinarians, Minyak underwent a surgery in January 2003 to remove his air sac entirely, a groundbreaking operation that had never before been attempted on a mature ape. After the successful operation, Minyak and his keepers underwent a rigorous training program conducted jointly by the veterinary and keeper staff to ensure that Minyak was taking his medications. He was trained to reliably move from holding area to exhibit spaces and be “nebulized” by the keepers daily. Minyak’s success story also caught the interest of IQ Air, a Swiss company that specializes in air cleaning systems, and they generously donated and installed air purification equipment, meant especially for the orangutan.
Once Minyak recovered from the surgery, he was brought back into Red Ape Rain Forest where zookeepers crossed their fingers that the orangutan’s improved health would be conducive to breeding. Minyak went on to father two female baby orangutans. With all of his medical issues, Minyak’s zookeepers described him as a fighter, extremely cooperative, and very forgiving. He will be missed by everyone. We kept him alive MANY YEARS longer he'd have lived in the wild AND he began a new gene line with his two daughters. Still.....
Michela, and yout friend Pam: I'd like to express ... my condolences. What I've just read makes me feel sorry and mourn Minyak's death.
