11-year-old orangutan Malu forced Melbourne Zoo into lockdown after he used a blanket to escape from his cage. Courtesy: Seven News Melbourne

MELBOURNE Zoo went into lockdown this afternoon after an orang-utan escaped his enclosure.

Menyaru — also known as Malu — escaped about 3.30pm, forcing staff to restrict the movements of visitors while they recaptured him.

The 11-year-old juvenile animal escaped through a hole in his enclosure’s roof, apparently using a blanket to help in the breakout.

That was where he was spotted by a member of the public who alerted zoo staff.

But it was not before Malu made his way to the public viewing area, where he would have had a reverse view of his enclosure - seeing his world from the point of view of zoo visitors.

By about 4.30pm the orang-utan had been tranquillised.

A zoo spokeswoman said Malu had been trained to hold out his arm to received needle jabs.

A trainer was able to put this to good use, tranquillising him, and returning him to his usual sleeping area, where he was expected to have a long rest recovering from his adventure.

It was possible he may not be on display tomorrow while his roof is repaired, the zoo said.

“Eleven year-old Sumatran Orang-utan, Malu managed to exit from his exhibit and enter the public area of Melbourne Zoo this afternoon,” a Zoo spokesman said in a statement.

“Melbourne Zoo staff acted quickly to lockdown the Zoo and all visitors have been safely ushered into secure areas.

“Malu has been secured in an undercover area of the Zoo with Keepers and Vets on hand to assist.”

Witness Justine Cowling told the Bendigo Advertiser Malu escaped by “using the blanket as leverage to break the top wire of its enclosure”.

“It pulled itself up and out and walked along the roof of the enclosure,” she told the website.

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Escapes the way of the jungle

WHEN Menyaru the orangutan decided he’d had enough of his Melbourne Zoo enclosure yesterday, he joined an impressive lineup of simian escapologists.

Menyaru, also known as Malu, apparently worked his way through a hole in the enclosure roof, showing yet again that orangutans have a special talent for escaping.

One of his more celebrated predecessors was San Diego Zoo’s ‘hairy houdini’, Ken Allen, whose skills saw him earn a spot in Time Magazine’s Top 11 Zoo Escapes list.

Time noted: “He never seemed to mind being led back into his enclosure - he just seemed to enjoy the challenge of finding a new way out!”

Ken was the subject of a song, The Ballad of Ken Allen, which still exists on YouTube as proof that songs about orangutans don’t win Grammys.

Another orangutan who made the pages of Time was Omaha Zoo’s escape artist Fu Manchu, whose skills were simply remarkable.

According to Time, the orangutan staged a series of escapes using a piece of wire to pop open a door, hiding the wire between breakouts.

In Adelaide in 2009, another orangutan called Karta showed amazing skills when she engineered a breakout.

Karta - described by the zoo as both mischievous and inquisitive, used a stick to short-circuit an electric fence.