Zoo Orders Therapy For Stressed-Out Animals

  • 17/04/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)

Sisi slowly browses through the yellow pages, looking not for a phone number but for peanuts and sunflower seeds hidden in the directory. Mali plays with a block of ice containing apples and oranges, crushing it with her feet to get at the fruit. Sisi, a 23-yearold orangutan, and Mali, a 33-year-old elephant, are two of the mammals and birds undergoing behavioral therapy at Manila zoo as part of a program to combat the stress and boredom of living in captivity. The program is Manila's answer to criticism that conditions at its 49-year-old zoo, among the oldest in Asia, are dismal