The portfolio of Buschi - artist, widower and orang-utan

The garish colours splashed with wild abandon across the canvases recall the 1950s "action painting" of Jackson Pollock - yet in fact they are the work of a bereaved orang-utan called Buschi.

Staff at Osnabrück's city zoo decided to put the 34-year-old orang-utan's works on show last week, after he had built up a portfolio comprising a year's worth of finger and brush paintings, usually completed under the influence of several bottles of his favourite (non-alcoholic) malt beer.

Buschi took up painting a year ago after his female partner, Suma, died. Ute Magiera, the zoo's director said yesterday: "We wanted to keep Buschi occupied to stop him feeling lonely.

"Orang-utans are highly intelligent and he is certainly not the only one who paints," she added.

The paintings are also on sale. Proceeds are going to the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Association, which is campaigning to save the species from extinction.

The orang-utan is under threat in its native Indonesia from large-scale felling and burning of rainforests.

Maik Schaefer, the association's Germany secretary, said unscrupulous and illicit traders were another threat - owning an orang-utan was a symbol of status in the area.

Nina Gangei, Buschi's personal keeper, said yesterday the orang-utan clearly enjoyed painting and usually sampled every colour by mouth before applying it to the canvas.

Another remedy has also been found for Buschi's loneliness. These days his action painting is watched avidly by Astrid, a 23-year-old female orang-utan who arrived at the zoo at the end of June.