Single male (red hair, long arms, interests include hanging in trees) seeks female for long-distance relationship with the possibility of meeting up in the future to help save a species.
Zookeepers in the Netherlands are planning to hook up Dutch and Indonesian orangutans over the Internet. They believe the link they are using could some day be used as an online dating service where apes could get to know one another and keepers could work out whether they would be compatible mates.
The orangutans will start their love story the old-fashioned way, with a romantic dinner for two. “We are going to set up an Internet connection between Indonesia and Apeldoorn so that the apes can see each other and, by ... pressing a button, be able to give one another food,” said Anouk Ballot, a spokeswoman for the Apenheul ape park in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn.
PHOTO: AFP
Ballot said the primary aim of the computer link between Apenheul and an orangutan center on the Indonesian part of Borneo was to raise public awareness of the apes and their plight. Activists say that the spread of oil palm plantations, along with logging, is threatening animals such as wild orangutans. They worry the orangutans will become extinct, because the plantations and the logging are chewing up their native jungle habitats.
Ballot said that only orangutans who show a natural interest in the activity will take part.
There is still work to be done to set up the Internet connection. “We need to find ape-proof cables and screens,” Ballot said, adding that the zoo hopes to have the orangutans online by the end of this year or early 2007. (AP)
單身男性（紅毛、長手臂，興趣之一是吊在樹上）尋求與女方的遠距戀情，在未來可能有助於拯救物種。
荷蘭的動物園管理員計畫透過網路讓荷蘭與印尼的紅毛猩猩送作堆。他們相信這種連線有朝一日可以做為線上約會服務，紅毛猩猩可以在這裡認識彼此，管理員也可知道牠們是否為合適伴侶。
紅毛猩猩將以雙方共進浪漫晚餐的傳統方法展開戀情。荷蘭阿培爾頓市的阿培恩霍猴園的女性發言人安努克．芭拉特說︰「我們會在印尼與阿培爾頓間設立網路連結，如此紅毛猩猩就可以看見彼此，而且只要按下按鍵，就可以將食物送給對方。」
芭拉特表示，阿培恩霍與印尼婆羅洲島一處猴園電腦連線的主要目的，就是要喚起大眾對猩猩及其困境的注意。保育人士表示，油棕樹農園擴張加上森林砍伐，正威脅野生的紅毛猩猩等動物。由於農園與森林砍伐正逐步吞佔紅毛猩猩的原生地雨林，他們擔心紅毛猩猩會滅種。
芭拉特表示，只有自然表現出對這種活動感興趣的紅毛猩猩才會參加。
要架設網路連線仍有問題需要解決。芭拉特說︰「我們需要找出不會讓猩猩破壞的纜線與螢幕。」她附帶說，園方希望在年底前或明年初讓紅毛猩猩上網。
（美聯社/翻譯︰賴美君）
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