A video from the Ramat Gan Safari is going viral after visitors at the primate exhibit were amazed to find an orangutan sitting and leisurely smoking a cigarette.
The Ramat Gan orangutan is not the first great ape to light up the headlines. In 2018, Ozon, a 22-year-old orangutan at Indonesia’s Bandung Zoo, retrieved a lit cigarette tossed into his enclosure by a visitor and began puffing away. Some members of the crowd laughed, but animal-welfare activists were decidedly less amused.
Then there was Tori, an orangutan at Taru Jurug Zoo in Solo, Indonesia, who reportedly maintained her smoking habit for about a decade. After learning to imitate visitors, she became so accustomed to cigarettes that she would reportedly bring two fingers to her mouth when she wanted one and become agitated if her request went unanswered.
Zoo officials eventually decided that Tori’s days as a chain-smoking attraction had to end. Guards and mesh barriers were used to cut off her cigarette supply, and she was moved farther from visitors.