Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden
After the gorilla baby, born in January, the orangutans have a newborn, too. The little one was born on April 4, but we cannot see a lot of the baby yet. The keepers, however, have already spied that the newcomer is a baby girl. For that matter, it has been ten years since the last time an orangutan was born in Budapest.
The primate population of our zoo welcomed a new baby again. This time, however, not a gorilla but a baby orangutan was born. The little one arrived in the morning of April 4. For the sake of the peace and quiet of the animals, only that area of the Apes’ House was open for the visitors where the gorillas live.
Jambi, the 11 years old mother animal was born at the Chester Zoo and arrived in Budapest in 2007. The father of the baby Chuij was born in Hamburg in 1996 and has been a member of the Budapest family since 2004. Besides them, a third adult orangutan lives in our Zoo. Mengala, a female orangutan, was born in April 1996 here in Budapest, too. The arrival of the newcomer is very significant because no orangutan was born at our Zoo in the last ten years.
As customary with very young primates, the baby spends most of her time with feeding and sleeping, and she is constantly clinging to her mother. This also means that at this age, we can barely see anything of the little fellow. Especially so, because the orangutans’ fur is much shaggier than, for example, that of the gorillas’. Hence, a great deal of luck is required for the visitors to observe the growing baby now. From Saturday, the section of the Apes’ House where the orangutans live will be open, too. However, during the first days it is almost certain that the majority of visitors will see nothing of the little orangutan. Even the staff of the Zoo spent several days until they could take a usable photograph of the animal.
The Sumatran Orangutans (Pongo abelii) are critically endangered great apes. They live 400 to 1500 meters above sea level in the tropical forests. They mostly feed on fruits, leaves, tree bark, and smaller animals. In their natural habitat, orangutans are solitary animals. The females give birth to usually one baby after a 270-280-day pregnancy. The infants normally breastfeed for two years, and generally, they become completely independent at age 8-9. The orangutans’ lifespan can exceed 50 years. At the zoos of the world approximately 240 Sumatran Orangutans live, which is less than their close relatives, the also critically endangered Bornean Orangutans.
