Have you oo-oo-oo got a light?
NOBODY knows who taught her to smoke. But since Dallae the chimpanzee got the hang of it, she’s become something of an expert.
So much so in fact, that her disturbingly human habit of chain-smoking has made her the star attraction in North Korea’s newly-reopened zoo.
According to her keepers at Korea Central Zoo, the 19-year-old chimp, whose name means Azalea, smokes around a pack of cigarettes a day. They insist, however, that she does not inhale.
Thrown a lighter by a trainer, Dallae, one of two chimpanzees in the zoo, deftly lights her own cigarettes. If a lighter isn’t available, she can spark up from a lit cigarette, chain-smoking her way through one after the other.
While it’s a trick that would horrify zoo visitors here, crowds in the communist dictatorship roared with laughter as Dallae sat puffing away yesterday, egged on by her trainer.
He also prompted her to touch her nose on command, bow and do a simple dance. Dallae’s treatment raises serious questions about animal welfare at the zoo, situated in the capital, Pyongyang.
It is one of the most popular attractions in the secretive state, pulling in thousands of visitors a day. However, it is also one of the most bizarre, with displays including the dog pavilion, in which you can see every breed from German shepherds to shih tzus.
And as well as Dallae, there are other animals forced to do tricks, including a monkey that slam-dunks basketballs, dogs that appear to do sums on an abacus, and doves who fly around a woman on rollerskates.
Renovations at the zoo began in 2014, as part of dictator Kim Jong-un’s efforts to create more modern and impressive structures around the capital. According to its official history, the zoo started off with only 50 badgers in 1959.