• An orangutan on percussions while performing to an audience at Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok.
    An orangutan on percussions while performing to an audience at Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok.
  • Orangutans prepare for a Muay Thai kickboxing bout at Safari World.
    Orangutans prepare for a Muay Thai kickboxing bout at Safari World.
  • A Thai zoo worker interacting with an orangutan during a Muay Thai kickboxing bout at Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok.
    A Thai zoo worker interacting with an orangutan during a Muay Thai kickboxing bout at Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok.
  • An orangutan celebrates a win in a Muay Thai kickboxing match.
    An orangutan celebrates a win in a Muay Thai kickboxing match.
  • A tourist takes a selfie with a giraffe.
    A tourist takes a selfie with a giraffe.
  • An orangutan playing the drums while performing to an audience at Safari World.
    An orangutan playing the drums while performing to an audience at Safari World.
  • Tourists feed giraffes.
    Tourists feed giraffes.
  • Orangutans perform for the Safari World audience.
    Orangutans perform for the Safari World audience.
  • A Thai zoo worker interacts with an orangutan in a boxing ring at Safari World.
    A Thai zoo worker interacts with an orangutan in a boxing ring at Safari World.
  • Orangutans fight in the ring during a Muay Thai kickboxing match.
    Orangutans fight in the ring during a Muay Thai kickboxing match.

Asia

Inside Safari World: A place where orangutans box

Rob Gurdebeke

September 01, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

To outsiders, Thailand’s treatment of animals can appear confusingly contradictory - it is not unusual to see pampered pooches pushed around in prams or entire temples providing sanctuary to stray cats and dogs, yet the same dogs might also be on a dinner table in the northeast of Thailand.

Every morning hundreds of tourists visit Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, to see apes perform a show parodying human behaviour. Such attractions are increasingly at odds in a nation slowly embracing animal welfare

All photos: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul / AFP Photo

ThailandSouth-East AsiaBoxing