Baby Sumatran Orangutan Born At Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) – There's another new baby at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!
A baby Sumatran orangutan was born at 9:28 p.m. Wednesday night.
This comes just days after the zoo celebrated the birth of its 200th giraffe calf.
The baby orangutan is the third offspring for 30-year-old mom, Sumagu, and 27-year-old dad, Baka.
Zoo officials said the mother and baby appear to be healthy and bonding well, so the staff has not intervened to determine the sex of the baby or any other details.
"The baby was clinging strongly to Sumagu within minutes after birth," zoo officials stated. "Sumagu came over to animal and vet staff to take some fruit, and they could tell she had done a great job cleaning the baby up quickly."
"She then spent some time rearranging her nest after the birth. The pair have also been observed successfully nursing," officials stated.
Mother and baby are in their regular exhibit in Primate World, which will be open for guests.
"Depending on where Sumagu decides to spend time, she and the baby may or may not be visible to guests," officials said.
Sumagu's two previous offspring were both males – Makan, born in January 2003 and Godek, born in February 2009. Both of them now live at other accredited zoos.
Orangutans are pregnant for an average of 245 days, or a little over eight months.
According to zoo officials, orangutan fathers do not usually help with raising offspring in the wild, but they tend to do well in zoos where there isn't competition for food and mates.
"Baka revealed great fatherly instincts with his previous two offspring," stated officials. "Staff are hopeful this will be the case with this new little one, but just to be sure, he will be kept separated from mom and baby for a short time."
Wild Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered.
"Non-sustainable palm oil production is fueling destruction of the rainforest habitat of Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, pushing those endangered species even closer to extinction," zoo officials stated.
Palm oil is found in a huge variety of products, including cookies, crackers, frozen dinners, shampoo, lotions, cosmetics, and pet food. It is now the most widely produced edible oil.
"You can help Cheyenne Mountain Zoo make a difference in this crisis by choosing the products you buy carefully using our sustainable palm oil shopping app. The app helps consumers make responsible decisions about the food and health/beauty products purchased every day – just scan a product in the app, and it will tell you how that company is doing with using responsibly sourced palm oil for their products," officials stated.
To download the app, or to learn more about the palm oil crisis, visit www.cmzoo.org/palmoil.
