Monday, November 27, 2006

Dropping the Deuce

Celebrating the two hundreth posting! Given that we've been here in Oz about 16 months, that puts the rate of writing at about once every four or five days. The repetition isn't the hard part, it is trying to remember what I was going to post about.

Our friend the orangutan here was a recent rescue from Thailand. His keepers had been training him and a fellow orang to kickbox in the classic Mui Thai style. The would mimic all of the classic Thai pre-match stanzas, then pretend to duke it out in the ring. One guy would pretend to get knocked out while the referee would count to ten.

It is hard to believe that these gangly creatures could really hurt one another, except in the wild. In looking at our fine friend here on the right, this whole thing must have been an act. Nonetheless, the SPCA, or whomever the Thai's have for animal protection, came in and stopped the practice. I guess if the orangs are made to do this several times a day in squalid conditions would it be looked at as unfair. I was hoping to catch some animals imitating human activities on our trip there, always good for photo opportunities. Elephant soccer? Turtle rugby?

UPDATE: OK, after some further googling, I now feel bad for the Orangs. Although, they dressed them up as doctors and ring girls as well, further adding to the cruel humour.

posted by ncawthon at 8:04 AM