Ken Allen (February 13, 1971 – December 1, 2000) was a
Bornean orangutan at the
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...
. He became one of the most popular animals in the history of the zoo because of his many successful escapes from his enclosures. He was nicknamed "the Hairy
Houdini
Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician R ...
".
Ken Allen was born in captivity at the San Diego Zoo in 1971. In 1985, he gained worldwide attention for a series of three escapes from his enclosure, which had been thought to be escape-proof. During some of his escapes, his female companions joined him. Ken Allen's ability to outwit his keepers, as well as his docile demeanor during his escapes, resulted in fame. He had his own
fan club, and was the subject of
T-shirt
A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...
s and
bumper stickers
A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles—although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers ar ...
(most reading "Free Ken Allen"). A song, "The Ballad of Ken Allen", was written about him.
Ken Allen developed
prostate cancer and was
euthanized on December 1, 2000. He was 29 years old.
Escapes
In 1985, during his three escapes on June 13, July 29, and August 13, Ken Allen peacefully strolled around the zoo looking at other animals. Ken never acted violently or aggressively towards zoo patrons or animals.
Zookeepers were initially stumped over how he had managed to escape. Zoo staff began surveillance of his enclosure to try to catch him in the act, only to find that he seemed to be aware that he was being watched. This forced zookeepers to go "undercover", posing as tourists to learn Ken Allen's escape route, but the ape was not fooled. Moreover, other orangutans began following Ken Allen's lead, escaping from their enclosure.
Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1987, cited at pqarchiver
/ref> Zoo officials eventually hired experienced rock climbers
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...
to find every finger-, toe- and foothold within the enclosure, spending $40,000 to eliminate the identified holds.
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' in 2011 listed Ken Allen's story as one of the ''Top Eleven Zoo Escapes''.
See also
* List of individual apes
This is a list of non-human apes of encyclopedic interest. It includes individual chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and gibbons that are in some way famous or notable.
Actors
* Bam Bam, an orangutan, played Precious on the soap opera ...
References
Further reading
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{{San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
1971 animal births
2000 animal deaths
Individual animals in the United States
Individual orangutans
Missing or escaped animals
San Diego Zoo