Dudley Zoo goes bananas as ape sculpture highlighting endangered species is unveiled
A giant metal statue of a Bornean orangutan highlighting the plight of endangered apes has been unveiled in the Black Country.
The metal artwork was unveiled at Dudley Zoo on Tuesday to help spread awareness of critically endangered species around the world.
Cradley Heath artist Luke Perry teamed up with the zoo to create the piece, which will feature at the outdoor orangutan enclosure.
Mr Perry said: "All orangutans are endangered really, but we are trying to make art that people look at and will make them think.
"People really think that because these animals are so far away we have no control over their future, but we really do, and it doesn't really take half as much effort to change as people may think."
The two-piece sculpture features a mother and baby orangutan placed just out of reach of each other, signifying the separation of forests currently experienced in the orangutan's natural habitat.
Mr Perry continued: "We have a mother orangutan climbing three full-length poles looking for her baby, and a young orangutan is climbing among 97 other poles separated from its mother.
"That is how we really tried to develop this concept, it's a mother trying to look past the emptiness of the forest to get to her baby."
The sculpture is made out of sheet metal that was cut and designed to resemble a great ape, then coloured and installed at the zoo.
The 39-year-old talked about the impact of the sculpture: "Having the orangutan in the zoo has people thinking 'oh, they are lovely' and 'oh, they are safe'.
"But then having this three-dimensional sculpture quite close to the enclosure telling the story that the orangutans can't say is really bittersweet really. We can only wait and see if the sculpture has worked.
"Really if it gets even just one person to think about endangered animals, then that's it really."
Alongside the artwork, Dudley Zoo has also pledged £100,000 over five years to the Singtang Orangutan Centre in Indonesia, the land native to the species, which will help to rescue, rehabilitate and release the orangutans back into the wild.
The artist said: "It is really lovely to have it unveiled. Visitors are responding really well to it and you can kind of see them stop and think. It's a really poignant piece really - it's fantastic to look at, but it holds a serious message."
