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SHE used to swing with seeming weightlessness from tree to tree.
Now, the Ah Meng that remains at the zoo is a sculpture.
And it took a team of nine men almost an hour to move it just 50m.
The familiar 1,500kg Ah Meng sculpture was moved from beside the habitat area to her final resting place by the water's edge.
The sculpture was completed in August last year to honour the zoo's best-known resident.
She died of old age on Friday.
The sculpture was moved to "commemorate Ah Meng's contribution as a conservation ambassador", said a zoo spokesman.
Ah Meng?s figure will now forever greet those walking on the main pavement, just 5m from her grave in a scenic and tranquil area named "Garden With a View", overlooking the Upper Seletar Reservoir. It is also near the orang utan habitat.
She may be gone, but she'll certainly not be out of sight or memory.
Yesterday, a curious crowd watched the transporting of the sculpture from one spot to another.
But the bottom of the boulder on which the sculpture rests is not flat. So workers had to prepare the soil at the new spot for it to be stabilised.
Said Mr Dennis Piak, 42, an electrician, who was at the garden with his wife: "She was a superstar. She had the privilege to meet so many international stars like Michael Jackson. We will surely miss her."
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 10, 2008.
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