An orangutan who started smoking nine years ago is being sent to an island in the hope that it will help her beat her addiction.

Tori, who is 15 years old, first picked up the habit when visitors to Satwa Taru Jurug Zoo in Indonesia threw cigarette butts into her enclosure.

What started out as an unwitting experiment, as she mimicked the humans around her, soon became a full-blown habit.

Concerned staff set up a rehabilitation programme last month and now plan to move Tori to a nearby island where she can be closer to her natural habitat.

Staff have been appointed to watch her in her enclosure, to make sure that she is given fruit and healthy food, rather than cigarettes.

They are awaiting the results of medical tests to find out whether or not Tori's decade-long habit has taken a toll on her health.