ARTICLE - CRASH DIET FOR CHUNKY MONKEY

Crash diet for a chunky monkey

 31st July 2011

• By Arron Hendy

AN OBESE ape is seeing the benefits of a crash diet and exercise regime.

Oshine the Bornean orang-utan arr-ived at Monkey World last summer morbidly obese at twice the weight she should have been after living as a pet on sweets and processed food.

But her new diet has helped her lose fat while exercise has boosted her fitness and staff at the sanctuary and tourist attraction near Bovington have been delighted to see her adopt an orphaned orang-utan.

Dr Alison Cronin, director, said: “With Monkey World’s help Oshine has turned her life around.

“When she arrived at the rescue centre she was morbidly obese and ran the risk of developing heart disease, blood clots, high blood pressure and diabetes.

“We have been quite strict with her diet and have removed all sweets and processed foods that she used to get in addition to her normal diet and it has worked.”

Oshine weighed 100kg when she arrived but the team at the sanctuary have helped the 14-year-old lose 20kg by changing her food and giving her a 20m climbing fame to scale and exercise on.

Monkey World is home to Europe’s orang-utan crèche where orphaned babies are sent to grow up with others of their own kind.

Oshine has adopted an orphaned baby orang-utan named Silvestre and it is hoped that they will be integrated in with the other orang-utans soon. Silvestre is a male Sumatran orang-utan and was born in 2009 at Santillana Zoo in Spain.

His mother abandoned him so keepers at the zoo cared for him for the first 11 months of his life and in December last year he was brought to Monkey World to join the orang-utan crèche. Dr Cronin added: “Oshine still has a long way to go and needs to lose another 20-30 kg before we will be happy with her fitness and health.

“I hope that by the end of this year Oshine will have lost enough weight that we can introduce her to one of our adult groups of orang-utans where she will be able to have her own baby but until she loses more weight it would not be healthy for her.”

Oshine’s diet includes fruit and vegetables, eggs, chicken, breakfast cereal, rice and couscous.

Her rescue and rehabilitation will be featured in a new series of Monkey Life due to be launched on the Animal Planet television channel starting on August 29th.

As members of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme for orang-utans Monkey World breeds the apes and offers a home to any babies born in European zoos that are orphaned.