A baby Bornean orangutan at a South Korean zoo underwent surgery last month to lace up one of his testicles where it should be after it had been found abnormally stuck inside the anthropoid's abdomen, a zoo official said Friday.

The two-hour surgery was the first of its kind in the world and drew a team of six local urologists and veterinarians, according to Kang Hyung-uk, a public relations official at Seoul Zoo, located just outside of Seoul. Kang said he had checked with other zoo associations abroad to see if a similar surgery had ever been done.

The orangutan, barely 3 years old, was too young to undergo surgery when one of his testicles was found hidden inside his belly during a medical checkup last year, a potentially deadly case that could have developed into cancer and caused infertility, Kang said.

"So we waited until 'Baekseok' was strong enough, and a team of local urologists came forward in the meantime to help bring the testicle down to where it should be," he said.

Zaii Urology Hospital in southern Seoul confirmed its staff had conducted the surgery.

The doctors were delighted, Kang said, when they found the beleaguered organ had momentarily drifted down from inside the belly before they began their operation.

"So it was a matter of carefully lacing it up so it doesn't return. We were relieved the surgery didn't get more complicated,"

Kang said, describing the joy among his colleagues at the zoo.

How does Baekseok -- born here and expected to live about 50 years -- feel about his manly organ being restored to normal?

"He now seems to be strutting with more power than before,"Kang said, declining to elaborate.

Baekseok, whose name means the 100th anniversary in Korean, according to Kang, returned to the public eye on Friday, just ahead of the warm three-day holiday weekend.

(Yonhap News)