Orangutan hurls possum from Perth Zoo enclosure

The wild incident was caught on camera.

Wild video has captured the moment an orangutan hurled a possum from its enclosure at Perth Zoo.

The brutal reality of nature was brought to screaming onlookers as the artifice of the zoo’s engineered environment was shattered by an auburn ape with an athletic arm.

The incident starts innocently enough as the massive primate chases the marsupial up into its high perch before gingerly poking at it with a stick.

Its curiosity satisfied, the orangutan then dispatches the possum with a frisbee-style throw as visitors scream in horror.

“Oh my god!” one is heard to exclaim as the possum briefly defies gravity before plunging back down to earth.

“Bloody hell, that was like an Olympics-level discus throw,” one person joked after the video was shared online

“That was personal,” another noted, as many said they were amused by the video, despite the apparent life-and-death nature of the event.

But the little Aussie battler made it, the zoo later confirmed.

The wild incident was caught on camera.

“Rest assured the possum was sighted scurrying off after being evicted. They are a very robust species,” a Perth Zoo spokesperson told 9 News.

“The orangutan habitat is an outside environment, and possums, who also live at height, just like the orangutans, have been known to inhabit the above-ground territories.

“On this occasion, the orangutan was alarmed to find an unknown occupant in their bed.”

The possum is native to Australia but its pest status in Aotearoa has seen the orangutan’s slightly more evolved cousin, the New Zealander, also treating the fluffy invader badly.

A rural Manawatū school which held a possum-throwing contest in 2010, earned the ire of the SPCA after children were encouraged to hold possum carcasses by the tail in a contest to see who could throw them the furthest.

Colyton School was criticised by the SPCA, despite not breaking any laws.

”It’s morally wrong to throw a dead animal around,” a spokesperson said. “It’s about time that people wake up and smell 2010 and realise that these sorts of things shouldn’t be happening.”

But a decade later it appeared not much had changed when a video was shared showing a dead possum set up in a weightlifting pose.

The dead possum had been posed to imitate a person lifting weights.

The video, which was shared to social media in 2020, showed a car approaching a possum lying dead on a rural road.

The shocked occupants of the car then zoomed in on the animal, revealing that its body had been manipulated in a macabre scene.

The possum’s front legs were thrust into the air, gripping a stick with what appeared to be two mandarins attached.

The SPCA said at the time that the video could have negative effects.

“It’s important not to underestimate the impact of how the New Zealand public treat animals labelled as ‘pests’ and what the desensitisation can lead to for our kids and communities and SPCA is concerned that people may lessen their respect and empathy for animals,” a spokesperson said.