Authorities seized the adult ape named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia's southern Johor state last week after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor conditions. Shirley is now being quarantined at another zoo in a neighboring state and is expected to be sent to a Malaysian wildlife center on Borneo Island within weeks. Melaka Zoo Director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because "smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans."

"I would say she is not addicted... but she might have formed a habit after mimicking human beings who were smoking around her," Ahmad told The Associated Press. Nature Alert, a British-based activist group, wrote to Malaysian officials about Shirley earlier this year, saying conservationists who visited the Johor zoo often saw people throwing lit cigarettes to her in a pit-like enclosure. The group said Shirley seemed to suffer severe mood swings, sometimes looking drowsy and on other occasions appearing "very agitated" without a cigarette.