Thailand's animal welfare law was adopted in 2014 - but you can still watch orangutans in a boxing ring for fun

Boxing gloves raised, two orangutans enter a ring at a Thai zoo, a spectacle that fascinates locals and foreigners alike but sits increasingly at odds in a nation slowly embracing animal welfare.

Every morning hundreds of tourists visit Safari World, a large zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, to see apes perform a show parodying human behaviour - in particular our predilection for violence, sex and alcohol.

Female orangutans, decked in bikini tops and miniskirts, pretend to seduce monkey musicians as rowdy ape fans drink beer and throw cans at the two orangutans play-fighting.

“It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen,” says Aisha, a 23-year-old tourist from Sri Lanka. “It’s incredible what they’re capable of.”

But others are less enthusiastic.

“I don’t like it at all,” says Erwin Newton, 30, from the United States. “I don’t understand, what is interesting in making animals behave in this violent, dirty way?”