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  • 2022-01-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Is This Orangutan Actually Driving a Golf Cart? (en)
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  • In January 2022, late night host Stephen Colbert brought widespread attention to a viral clip that supposedly showed an orangutan driving a golf cart. The original video, which has been online since at least September 2021, appears below: This is a real video of an orangutan driving a golf cart. This video was taken in Dubai at the menagerie, a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition, of Sheikha Fatima Rashed Al Maktoum, the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. The orangutan in this video is named Rambo. While we haven't been able to find many specifics about Rambo (such as her age or how she ended up in this zoo), we have found several other videos of Rambo and other animals at Sheikha Fatima's zoo. In 2019, for example, German entrepreneur Saygin Yalcin posted a video of his visit to this private zoo. After bottle feeding some lions who are leashed to the ground, Yalcin's video shows a group of orangutans dressed in human clothing. At around the 5-minute mark, Rambo appears on screen, and at about the 6-minute mark, you can see another video of the orangutan driving a golf cart: On Anamalia, a YouTube channel run by Sheikha Fatima to showcase the incredible wildlife homed in her beachside sanctuary, there are several additional videos of Rambo. In one video, it is explained that Rambo has been driving since she was young and that she has graduated from smaller toy vehicles up to golf carts. In one video, the narrator (speaking from the point of view of Rambo) says: Here's a video of Rambo the orangutan driving various vehicles: While the video of this orangutan driving a golf cart went viral in large part because of its cuteness, the practices at this private zoo have received some criticism. In addition to the general problems with the exotic pet trade, which may include animals being illegally bred or trafficked, PETA criticized this zoo's practice of chaining lions to the ground so that they can be bottle fed by human visitors: Fatima, however, says that she has had a passion for animals since she was a child and that she has a personal relationship with all of the animals in her zoo. Sheikha Fatima spoke about her animals with Middle East Architectural Digest in 2019: (en)
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