A Russian tourist has been arrested after trying to smuggle a drugged orangutan out of the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Andrei Zhestkov, 27, was taken into custody at the airport after an X-ray found the two-year-old male orangutan in a rattan basket inside his luggage.
Customs officers also found allergy pills in the man's suitcase, a spokesman from Bali province's conservation agency said.
He said Zhestkok told authorities he deliberately fed the ape allergy pills mixed with milk, causing it to lose consciousness for up to three hours.
He also told officials he bought the orangutan for $3,000 (£2,270) from a market on Indonesia's main island of Java after being told by a friend that he could bring it home as a pet.
Two geckos and five lizards were also found in Zhestkok’s suitcase. All the animals were alive.
He is yet to be charged because police are still investigating the possibility of links to international syndicates involved in wildlife trafficking.
Orangutans are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Only around 13,400 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild.
