Violet, a 28-year-old female orangutan, arrived yesterday at the Honolulu Zoo and moved into the new $625,000 habitat built for her and Rusti, the zoo's male orangutan.

The new enclosure, near the reptile house at the Waikiki Zoo, was privately financed by donations and 20 times bigger than Rusti's cage. Violet will spend the next month there alone while she completes her quarantine after the move from the San Diego Zoo.

Then the two, who have both been sterilized, will be allowed to get acquainted. Violet was to have arrived last week but her plane trip was canceled after she tried to pry some metal strips from the crate in which she was traveling.

Zoo Director Ken Redman kept the new arrival out of the media spotlight yesterday, giving her time to adjust to her surroundings.