Primate Experts At Chester Zoo Use Dental Checks To Help Researchers In Asia
Primate experts at Chester Zoo are carrying out regular dental checks on orangutans to aid research projects in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Experts at the zoo are using dental checks to establish the animals’ ages and this information is helping researchers thousands of miles away who are working on conservation projects to save orangutans and increase numbers in the wild.
Researchers and conservationists regularly find that they need to relocate orangutans from the areas they grow up in as a result of deforestation or poaching and the age estimating is helping them to determine whether or not they are old enough to be moved successfully.
Young orangutans stay with their mothers for around eight years, which is the longest time period of any animal with the exclusion of human beings, and it is important that they are mature enough to be separated if the need arises.
Steve Unwin, a member of the team of vets at Chester Zoo, said that there are special ways of coaxing the orangutans to open their mouths for their dental checks and added that most of the zoo’s residents have been very cooperative.
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