Tapanuli orangutans are the world's most endangered great ape. Fewer than 800 remain, all previously thought to be in their native Indonesia. But now an Indian zoo says it has one.

An Indian court cleared the 3,500-acre wildlife facility known as Vantara on Monday of allegations including unlawful acquisition of animals and financial wrongdoing.

But the decision is unlikely to quiet questions about how Vantara, which describes itself as a wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centre, has stocked its enclosures.

Vantara, run by Anant Ambani, the son of Asia's richest man, says it houses 150,000 animals of 2,000 species, far exceeding populations at well-known zoos in New York, London or Berlin.

AFP spoke to seven experts on conservation and the wildlife trade to understand concerns about Vantara.

Several declined to speak on the record, citing Vantara's previous legal actions against critics.

They called Vantara's collection unprecedented.

"We've never seen anything on this scale," said one longtime conservation expert from a wildlife protection group.

"It's hoovering up animals from all over the world."

Some of those acquisitions are more noteworthy than others, such as the single tapanuli that arrived in Vantara between 2023 and 2024,........

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