The Sacramento Zoo has a new addition, and he is seriously adorable.
On May 1, the California zoo’s Sumatran orangutan Indah gave birth to a healthy male baby.
The Sacramento Zoo — which hasn’t seen an orangutan birth since 1981 — announced the exciting news on Facebook Monday. In its update, the park shared that mother and child are feeling good after the birth.
“Indah, the zoo’s 19-year-old Sumatran orangutan, gave birth to a healthy male infant,” it wrote in its Facebook post. “Both mother and infant are doing well.”
The Sacramento Zoo added that Indah had trouble nursing her new baby after the birth, so the orangutan family is getting extra help from their animal care team.
SACRAMENTO ZOO
“After the birth of the infant, care staff began around-the-clock observations to be certain everything was going smoothly with the pair,” the zoo shared. “While Indah’s behavior was appropriate, the first-time mother was having difficulty nursing, and the team made the decision to intervene in order to provide the infant with supplemental care.”
SACRAMENTO ZOO Breastfeeding Zookeeper Teaches Struggling Orangutan Mom How to Nurse
“The baby is currently receiving around-the-clock care by animal care and veterinary staff while the team is continuously reevaluating plans to reunite the infant with Indah,” the park added on social media. “The timeframe for reintroduction is unknown at this time, but that remains the ultimate goal.”
The Sacramento Zoo closed the Facebook post with a promise to keep their followers informed about Indah and her new baby and reassurance that both mother and child are “healthy and well.”
SACRAMENTO ZOO Crafty L.A. Zoo Orangutan Makes a Tool to Pick Up Baby Bottle Dropped Near Its Enclosure
The arrival of the baby Sumatran orangutan marks the first orangutan birth at the Zoo since 1981. Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered species, according to The ICUN Red List of Threatened Species. The primate’s population continues to decline in the wild, so every new Sumatran orangutan birth is seen as “a monumental success.”
SACRAMENTO ZOO
A video of a zoo veterinarian teaching an orangutan how to breastfeed went viral in March. In the clip, a zookeeper at Virginia’s Metro Richmond Zoo demonstrated how to nurse using her own infant for the primate. Less than 24 hours after the lesson, Zoe the orangutan began nursing her baby for the first time.
Source: people.com
