Zoo auctions orangutan art as NFTs, starting bid $550 for first-of-its-kind conversation effort

Friday is International Orangutan Day, and the Oklahoma City Zoo is marking it with a special occasion: an auction of 20 artworks digitally painted by Elok, the zoo’s 21-year-old orangutan. The works come in the form of NFTs, a type of unique digital collectibles, which will be auctioned off on the NFT platform OpenSea until August 22.

While several organizations have sold NFTs to benefit animal welfare in the past, this appears to be the first time an animal has created digital artwork for an NFT series.

Elok painted the artworks as a daily enrichment activity meant to keep him healthy and active. Using a modified brush and an Xbox equipped with a sensor, Elok painted a range of colors onto a digital canvas from his indoor habitat. In exchange, he got his favorite treats: popcorn, prunes and animal crackers.

Here’s a digital painting made by Elok that the zoo is keeping, but which is similar to the 20 that will be up for auction on Friday:

Courtesy of the Oklahoma City Zoo

Elok’s caregivers provide him with a daily enrichment activity such as puzzles or digging through hay to stimulate his senses and challenge him mentally. Elok has painted on physical canvases, but this was his first time trying digital painting, said Tracey Dolphin, the OKC Zoo’s curator of primates.

Elok is very creative and likes to use tools, Dolphin said, so despite the challenge, he eventually became interested in the new experience.

“You could see that learning as he went through the process, and once he understood that, he got into it a little bit more,” Dolphin told Fortune.

All three species of orangutans, Sumatran, Bornean and Tapanuli, are critically endangered and are at increased risk of extinction due to bushmeat hunting, road building, agriculture and illegal trade in their native habitats. Globally, 60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and 75% have declining populations, according to the zoo.

Rebecca Snyder, the zoo’s director of conservation and science, said that since Elok is a Sumatran orangutan, the zoo chose a Sumatra-based charity, the Leuser Conservation Forum, as the first to benefit from Friday’s auction. The funds will directly help preserve Elok’s native habitat on the Indonesian island, she said.

“They patrol the protected area there, which is important because habitat loss is a big problem for orangutans,” Snyder said Fortune. “That’s one of the main reasons why they’re critically endangered. Even though an area may be designated as protected, that doesn’t mean people aren’t still entering those areas and sometimes engaging in illegal activity.”

All proceeds from Friday’s auction will be collected by the zoo’s nonprofit organization, the Oklahoma Zoological Society, which will distribute the money to conservation organizations working to protect wild orangutans and other endangered species.

In February, WWF-UK, a non-governmental organization focused on wilderness conservation, sold a series of images of endangered animals as NFTs, but stopped sales after one day in response to criticism over the energy used to create the digital the symbols.

The Oklahoma Zoo seems to have decided that the benefits of raising money for primate habitats outweigh the relatively modest environmental impact of creating Elok’s NFTs, which were minted on the Ethereum blockchain.

It is unclear how much money Elok’s work could raise. In recent months, even NFTs by lesser-known artists have brought in thousands of dollars, and with a starting price tag of 0.3 Ether, or about $550 as of Wednesday, the OKC Zoo is hoping their campaign will be just as successful, and attracts conservation advocates and art collectors alike.

“Most people won’t have the opportunity to see a wild orangutan, and many people don’t know what happens to orangutans and their habitat, or to the other species that share the forest they live in, and our animals are great ways to introduce people to that and make them care about something happening on the other side of the planet, Snyder said.