
22/07/2025
This orangutan didn’t just escape from the zoo… he outwitted it.
Meet Ken Allen, the red-haired Houdini of the San Diego Zoo. In 1985, he busted out of his enclosure not once, not twice, but three times like it was just a casual afternoon stroll. And get this he didn’t run wild. He calmly wandered around the zoo, casually checking out the other animals like he was on a sightseeing tour.
No drama. No panic. Just pure primate swagger.
Zookeepers were baffled. They couldn’t figure out how he kept escaping. So they installed surveillance cameras. Ken Allen? He acted normal the second he saw them. The guy had situational awareness. Staff tried to spy on him dressed as tourists. Still didn’t work. Ken was always one step ahead.
And when he wasn’t escaping, he was plotting. He once casually tossed aside a crowbar when a human walked by like, “Who, me? Just redecorating!”
Oh, and he had beef. The only creature he didn’t like? A fellow orangutan named Otis. During one escape, Ken was caught throwing rocks at Otis. He was grounded for that one.
Eventually, the zoo brought in professional rock climbers to figure out how the heck this 150-pound genius kept slipping out. They spent $40,000 trying to orangutan-proof his enclosure. Meanwhile, other orangutans started copying Ken’s moves. The guy sparked a full-on ape uprising.
Ken Allen wasn’t just smart. He was strategic, sneaky, and had a weirdly human sense of timing. He wasn’t trying to cause chaos. He just didn’t like being caged.
Moral of the story? If Ken Allen wanted to escape, no moat, no camera, no disguise, and no electric fence was going to stop him.