A relative in Germany recently sent my daughter a birthday card with a photo (below) he'd taken of a Sumatran orang at Frankfurt Zoo on it. Noticing his grey beard, I was intrigued to find out more about him and after Googling, am assuming this is Charly, who is 52 in December ?? Various articles say he is the oldest fertile orang in captivity. Can anyone confirm this for me please ? He's apparently fathered 18 offspring and is now a great-grandfather. If anyone has any more info (how many, ages, relationships etc) about the orangs at Frankfurt, I'd love to read about them. I'd also be interested to know where his offspring have ended up. I appreciate I'm asking a lot so thanks in advance !
Orangs in Frankfurt I was in Frankfurt two days ago. Here is the actual list with the new born male Pandai: 1,0 Charly (born ~1958 wild, in Frankfurt since 08.03.1978) 1,0 Galdikas (born 09.03.2000 in Frankfurt, Charly x Rosa, Owner: Stuttgart Zoo) 1,0 Lucu (born 02.02.2005 in Frankfurt, Charly x Rosa) 1,0 Pandai (born 13.09.2009 in Frankfurt, Charly x Rosa) 0,1 Rosa (born 05.05.1989 at Tierpark Hagenbeck, Hamburg, Sinjo x Bella, in Frankfurt since 29.08.1995) 0,1 Djambi (born ~1959 wild, in Frankfurt since 15.05.1966) 0,1 Sirih (born 07.12.1992 in Zürich, Pongo x Jane, in Frankfurt since 28.08.1995) 0,1 Jahe (born 21.04.2003 in Frankfurt, Charly x Sirih) I don't know anything about Frankfurt descendents elsewhere also there must be some... But I attach a graphic illustrating the Ff group.
Thanks very much for all that info Grumeti. Not only is there Charly, but also a 50 year old female as well - wow ! ...... and wow again at Charly becoming a dad only a month ago. Sorry to ask more of you, but are the 8 kept in one large group or not ?
@GillP You are right, "Charly" is the oldest fertile Orang-Utan in captivity and the most successfull breeding male in Europe. He was born at Sumatra in 1958, was shipped to Wilhelma Stuttgart in 1962 together with "Buschi", "Kiki" and "Suma", grew up there and went to Frankfurt in 1978. His "wife" "Djambi" is 50 years old. It is not sure, whether Charly is the sire of "Pandai", maybe "Galdikas" is the sire.
Hi BjoernN - thanks for the extra info. Do you mean Frankfurt Zoo isn't sure ? ......... according to the thumbnail info posted previously by Grumeti, Charly is Pandai's father. His mother Rosa is also the mother of Galdikas so it would be rather unfortunate if they'd mated ...... though at 9, I suppose it would be just about possible in theory.
Although Charly has a grey(actually white) beard it is not age-related. The majority of Sumatran males have yellow/orange beards but some, like Charly, have a white one, even from a young age. Charly came from Stuttgart to replace Frankfurt's previous Sumatran male 'Moritz.'
Galdikas was moved to Singapore Zoo in February this year, and has recently mated with a young Sumatran female. If everything goes well, the zoo will welcome a baby in early 2011.
The new female orangutan 'Maria' has arrived from Santillana in Spain. Does anyone know; 1. When she arrived in Frankfurt. 2. Will her stay be temporary( just to learn how to mother-rear babies) or a more permanent basis? Thankyou.
Maria gave birth to a dead baby on december 23rd. she arrived at Frankfurt at the beginning of december (I do not know the exact date of arrival) and came to learn who to rear a baby.
Unfortunately Maria will never return to Santillana, she passed away. Shipping her to Frankfurt pregnantly was a fatal mistake.
Disaster.... Very sad too as she was the only surviving offspring of the male Adam that was previously in several zoos in the UK (lastly Bristol). fortunately she has three surviving offspring.(two females at Santillana, one(male) at Monkey World UK) so Adam's genes should be passed on through them.
A messup indeed. It would have made better sense to send her at a much earlier stage of pregnancy so she had both time to adapt to a new environment and take in maternal behaviour(if it really helps in adult animals) before her baby was born. Its possible they didn't realise how advanced she was, of course, but its a tragic waste nevertheless. Having said that, a female like her that has already rejected three babies is somewhat unlikely (in my opinion) to learn mothering skills at a later stage. But I had hoped that Maria would go on to breed at Frankfurt whether or not her mothering ability improved or not. Perhaps Santillana will be allocated another breeding female for their male now, or will he be moved too(the enclosure is not top class.)
