Orangutan sells photos on eBay

Nonja the orangutan photographer has put her work up for sale on the internet to raise cash for her relatives in the wild.

The artistic ape's handiwork has been viewed by tens of thousands of fans on Facebook after keepers at Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo in Austria gave her a digital camera and set up a Facebook account for her.

And this week the zoo confirmed that an exhibition of the best 20 snaps had been unveiled in the zoo and the framed works printed on canvas were being sold online on eBay - with each picture personally signed by Nonja with her trademark thumbprint signature.

Cash raised will go to protecting the habitat of wild orangutans in Borneo.

Zoo boss Dagmar Schratter said: "Orangutans are a very endangered species and only found in northern Sumatra and Borneo. There are probably only about 20,000 now living in the wild."

Snaps from the digital camera - which issues fruit treats whenever a picture is taken - are uploaded instantly over a WiFi link.

"It's an attempt to see the world through her eyes and see what she thinks is important. She's very artistic," said one keeper.

Nonja turned to photography after a spell as a painter when her works often reached up to £2,000 at auction. She now has 155 photos on her Facebook account - and 80,000 'Friends'.