Monkeying
around
Navy helps upgrade zoo.
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TIED
UP: Seaman Trainees Simon Houckly and Brendan Packard at
Melbourne Zoo.
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Photo: ABPH Nina Nikolin
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Volume 49, No. 12, July 13, 2006
By
LCDR Helen Blunden
About
20 seamanship trainees from HMAS Cerberus showed the orangutans
at Melbourne Zoo a thing or two about hanging around last month.
The
trainees arrived at Melbourne Zoo on June 13 as part of Defence
Assistance to the Civil Community Program.
They
showed off their seamanship and rope work skills and created a
high rope climbing structure as part of the new orangutan sanctuary
exhibit.
‘We
asked for the Navy’s assistance and they were brilliant.
They created a whole new dimension to the exhibit.’ –
Fleur Butcher, Melb Zoo
According
to the zoo’s senior keeper of the rainforest precinct, Fleur
Butcher, the orangutan enclosure was built in the 1970s and was
badly in need of some work.
“The
Melbourne Zoo is currently building a state-of-the-art orangutan
sanctuary to house the five orangutans here,” she said.
“As
they are climbing primates, we needed a structure that hangs above
the ground where they can feed and play.
“We asked for the Navy’s assistance and they were brilliant.
“They
created a whole new dimension to the exhibit.”
Melbourne
Zoo staff were impressed with the knowledge, skills and hard work
of the Navy team.
“They
were a great bunch of people to work with,” she said.
“It
was an amazing day, organised and productive.
As
well as the extensive rope ladders and towers they made, they
trained us to use the sewing machine to sew the heavy duty industrial
strength feedbags.
“Our
new skills will save us a lot of time and money in the future.”
LEUT
Barry Pincombe, OIC of the Seamanship School and organiser of
the day agreed.
“We
were happy to help out the zoo and both teams got something out
of it,” LEUT Pincombe said.
“It
was also a different day out for the trainees and a chance to
apply their seamanship skills with lots of splicing, whipping,
bends and hitches to create this orangutan heaven.”
