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Kuala Lumpur. A captive orangutan who smoked cigarettes given to her by zoo visitors was responding well to efforts to help her kick the habit, a wildlife official said Tuesday.

Last week, authorities seized Shirley the orangutan and other animals from a zoo in the southern state of Johor after complaints that the animals were living in poor conditions.

Fondly called “Smoking Shirley” by zoo keepers and visitors alike, the orangutan was taken to a zoo in the neighboring state of Melaka where she will be monitored and rehabilitated for two weeks before being sent to a wildlife center on Borneo island.

Melaka Zoo director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said Shirley has been “responding well” to her new environment despite not being given a cigarette since arriving at the zoo.

“She is being given the ‘cold turkey’ treatment, but she is showing normal behavior for an orangutan,” Ahmad said.

“There are no withdrawal symptoms, and she hasn’t shown any abnormally aggressive behavior which we would have expected.” Ahmad also rejected fears that the cold-turkey treatment would do Shirley more harm than good, saying that her initial irritability was likely due to her relocation.

Ahmad said the orangutan was “very smart” and was probably adjusting to her new environment, where cigarettes are not readily available as before.

He said medical officers took samples and scans of Shirley, adding that zoo authorities will only release her to the wildlife reserve once she has been given a clean bill of health.

Authorities estimate Shirley’s age to be 20, and say she could have picked up the smoking habit after watching zoo visitors smoking, and then trying it herself when cigarette butts were thrown into her cage.

Orangutans, which are native to Borneo and Indonesia’s Sumatra island, can live up to about 60 years in captivity.

DPA