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[Encore] Taiwan's Orangutan Craze and the Terrors of the Tiger Trade

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files
The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files
Episode • Jan 12, 2023 • 24m

You're hiking in the hills of Taichung in the early 1990s and suddenly come across ... an orangutan? What's more, this massive great ape is um ... in need of some, um ... "affection," and gets handsy. An unlikely scenario, right? But, that story is true! There was a time when Taiwan was gripped by a craze for baby orangutans. These apes, however, grow rather fast, and some of them were subsequently "set free." Here's that wild story, plus some others related to the "bad old days" when Taiwan was not a safe haven for many kinds of wild animals. 

NOTE: This episode was first released in Season One -- Formosa Files S1-E13, Nov. 21, 2021

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