Oh Gingers...

This news story comes from the continent that brought us the Crocodile Hunter, and its amazing.

ADELAIDE Zoo has dropped an ad campaign offering free visits to all "rangas" to highlight the plight of orang-utans after sensitive redheads complained.

Last week, advertisements ran offering "free Zoo entry for all rangas" during the school holidays.

"Ranga" - an abbreviation of orang-utan - is a common nickname for redheads.

"We seem to be getting quite a bit of a negative reaction to that request," said Zoos SA's director of conservation programs Kevin Evans, The Advertiser reported.

"People are possibly more sensitive about it than we thought," he said.

"We have a campaign over the school holidays because of orang-utans being an endangered species – and so are human redheads," Mr Evans said.

Less than 2 per cent of humans have red hair.

"Because of the way people move around these days, the genes that carry redheads are breeding out to brunettes and blondes," Mr Evans said.

"Eventually it looks like they are going to be extinct as well."

The zoo will continue to offer free entry to people with red hair for the next two weeks to raise awareness about orang-utans being endangered in the wild.

The campaign is timed to coincide with the birthday of the Zoo's male orangutan, Pusung, and will include daily talks about the species.

Dyed red hair will qualify for free entry and zoo staff will not seek proof that patrons are natural redheads.

"We're not actually checking tops and tails, or anything like that," Mr Evans said.