An Orangutan at an Australian zoo horrified visitors when it brutally evicted a possum by ”launching” it from the top of its enclosure after the wily pest had invaded its space.
A viral video shows the critter hurtling through the air and vanishing from view after being pitched from a tall metal tower at Perth Zoo, on Australia’s west coast.
Several people can be heard screaming in the background, with one exclaiming, “Oh, my God!”
The primate then emerges from the enclosure, as if to check where the airborne possum had landed.
When asked about what happened to the unfortunate marsupial, a Perth Zoo official told Yahoo! News Australia: “I would presume it did not survive the fall. Obviously the loss of any living creature saddens us, but also nature playing out.”
The person who shared the possum-throwing recording on Reddit has opened up about what had preceded the epic toss, saying that at first the orangutan was “throwing the possum around on the ground.”
The hulking great ape then chased the much smaller animal up the pole and “started poking it with a stick.”
According to the Reddit user, the possum ultimately landed in another exhibit occupied by two orangutans.
The zoo official sought to downplay the incident, telling the news outlet that while the zoo has a pest control program in place, “sometimes local wildlife manage to sneak in” — requiring animals to take matters into their own hands.
“The orangutan habitat is an outside environment, and possums, who also live at height, just like the orangutans, have been known to inhabit the above-ground territories,” the official explained.
“Whilst every effort is made to catch and remove them, the sheer height provides some challenges and sometimes the orangutans evict the odd possum themselves.”
Responses to the viral video have been mixed, with some Reddit commenters lionizing the orangutan, while others side with the unlucky possum.
“I know tenants are having a hard time paying the rent … but this eviction is a bit rough,” wrote one internet wit, while another opined that the violent eviction “was personal.”
A third posted: “Bloody hell, that was like an Olympics level discus throw.”
Someone else, however, spared a thought for the small, furry mammal, writing: “aww poor possum.”