Dutch orang-utans to chat via internet with Indonesian counterparts

Orang-utans in the Apenheul Primate Park near Apeldoorn in the eastern Netherlands will soon be able to communicate by means of an internet connection with their counterparts in a park on Borneo in Indonesia.

An Apenheul spokeswoman said the aim of the project was to draw attention to the possibility that there would soon be no orang-utans in the wild.
'We are going to set up an internet connection between Indonesia and Apeldoorn so that the apes can see each other and, by means of pressing a button, be able to give one another food, for example,' she said.
She said the remaining orang-utans in the wild in Indonesia were under threat from deforestation.

Apenheul, spread over 12 hectares, was a revolutionary concept when it was set up in 1971, allowing primates and people to interact in an open environment,  although with strict rules against touching or feeding the animals.