With the Sumatran orangutan being a critically endangered species, folks couldn’t have been happier about the birth of Nangka. This adorable little one was born at the Sacramento Zoo, a location that hasn’t seen the birth of an orangutan in 40 years, only adding to the excitement. His mother, 19-year-old Indah, was trained so she’d be ready to take care of him when the time came.
Being first-time mothers can be particularly difficult for orangutans. This proved to be true when Indah and Nangka began to interact. While the new mom seemed to enjoy playing with her little one, she also seemed to lack the ability to provide proper care for him.
“[Indah] is a sweet and playful first-time mother who, when reintroduced to Nangka, engaged with him more similarly to that of a playmate,” the Sacramento Zoo wrote on Facebook. “Despite many years of advance training building up to her eventual motherhood, Indah didn’t display the necessary maternal skills and care, such as nursing and attending to the infant’s cries.”
Just like that, Nangka found himself in need of an adoptive mom — and it couldn’t be just any human or animal.
“It is vital that infant orangutans be reared by other orangutans, who have a longer childhood than any other terrestrial mammal with the exception of humans (eight to 10 years),” Zoo Atlanta wrote on Facebook. “The opportunity to be reared by a fellow orangutan is essential to the development of the young, who learn everything they know from their mothers.”
Luckily, Zoo Atlanta has the perfect gal for the job: Madu. While she doesn’t have biological kiddos of her own, she has been an adoptive mom to four orangutans over the past 20 years. In fact, 12-year-old Remy and 8-year-old Keju are still in her care. Now, Nangka will be joining the family!
With “an outstanding track record for adopting infants whose mothers were unwilling or unable to care for them,” he is guaranteed to get the care he needs and deserves.
In fact, Madu has proven to be capable of taking care of her adoptive kiddos almost entirely on her own. When it comes time to feed them, she’s been trained to bring her little ones close to an indoor mesh barrier so that zoo employees are able to feed them with a bottle. How adorable!
You can find the sources of this story’s featured image here and here!
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