It’s back to the Naughty Corner for five-year-old Teliti, an orangutan at the Perth Zoo who made a daring escape from her enclosure.
Teliti, a curious Sumatran orangutan, gave zoo visitors a close up view after she dangled off a shade sail to land outside of the exhibit she shares with her mother.
Zoo staff said Teliti may have used the shade sail to jump from the exhibit she shares with her mother Puteri.
“It’s actually believed that Teliti jumped from her exhibit,” Perth Zoo spokeswoman Danielle Henry said. “That’s a behaviour which is quite unusual for an orangutan.They would normally swing or climb, but jumping is quite an unusual behaviour.
Back when she was celebrating her first birthday in 2010, Teliti was already known as a bit of a trouble-maker.
She is a real character and is very curious and interested in things around her,” orangutan keeper Martina Hart explains.
Reilly Lovegrove, 12, was at the zoo with his older sister and began shooting video and pictures when Teliti scaled the fence and crawled onto the populated pathway.
“It started climbing down backwards and came down onto the old pathway. It picked up a water bottle and put it in its mouth and grabbed onto the old railing, put its other hand onto the new railing and flipped itself up.”
A little girl started walking towards Teliti and patted the orangutan on its head. Reilly said in an interview published in the West Australian that’s when he and his sister started running to get a zoo keeper.
Hordes of people rushed towards Teliti.
The animal did not lash out at anyone but Reilly described its demeanour as “scared” and “alert” as people tried to touch it.
Reilly said he and his sister were careful not to approach the animal, as he knew what it could do.
“Considering how strong they are and how they could actually pull someone’s arm off, we were pretty scared,” he said.
And it was not the first time the youngster has seen an orangutan escape Perth Zoo.
“This is the second time I have seen an orangutan escape. The last time was in 2009,” he said. After that my parents told us what we had to do – to alert the keepers straight away, so that’s what we did.
Zoo keepers, responding to a Code One, quickly ushered Teliti, whose name means careful and thorough, into a secure holding area.
Teliti our curious 5 yr old orang went for a stroll earlier she’s now back with her family #NaughtyCorner #5YearOlds pic.twitter.com/AJxDgETDKa
— Perth Zoo (@PerthZoo) July 26, 2015
