Nonja (Vienna)

Nonja (born 21 April 1976 in Vienna^[1]) is a female Orang Utan at Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna Zoo) who has her own Facebook page. The zoo provided her with a special camera, enabling her to take digital pictures, which subsequently were uploaded to her Facebook page.

Nonja was born at Tiergarten Schönbrunn and grew up with her mother. However she was raised by the zoo's personnel as well. At some point when she was with her stockmen Nonja picked up a brush and made some attempts to paint. After that incident the zoo provided her for a while with a regular opportunity to paint or rather let her play with painting utensils. The zoo managed to sell some of her creations for prices of up to 2000 Euros.^[2][3]

In 2009, the zoo provided Nonja with a special camera with a wifi connection and encouraged her to take pictures in her enclosure. The camera was a special shock-proof one^[3] and released a raisin when a picture was taken.^[4] The pictures taken by Nonja were automatically uploaded to her Facebook page, which had several thousand visitors per day.^[5]

Notes

1. ^ Pongo Pygmaeus. Homepage of the Tiergarten Schönbrunn (zoo of Vienna) (retrieved 2009-12-5)
2. ^ „Nonja": Ein Affe auf Facebook - narchrichen.at (German) (retrieved 5.Dezember 2009)
3. ^ ^{a b} "Vienna Zoo Orang-Utan is a Facebook star". Austria: Austrian Times. http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2009-12-03/18576/Vienna_Zoo_Orang-Utan_is_a_Facebook_star. Retrieved 05 December 2009. 
4. ^ "Monkey business: Photos taken by an orangutan prove a Facebook sensation". The Daily Mail. 9:27 AM on 04th December 2009. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1232968/Monkey-business-Photos-taken-orangutan-prove-Facebook-sensation.html. Retrieved 05 December 2009. 
5. ^ "Snap-happy Vienna orangutan opens Facebook gallery". Reuters. Wed Dec 2, 2009 3:45pm EST. http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5B15FN20091202?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69. Retrieved 05 December 2009. 

External links

• Nonja's facebook page
• Photos of Nonja (retrieved 2009-12-5)