I think that this has been missed. Pregnant orang-utan Maimunah going through food cravings | Herald Sun Maimunah is due to give birth to her second young in November.Yet another significant birth for Melbourne this year.
Now if only Rigo would do his job properly... Huge 12 months or so for Melbourne. One (soon to be two) elephants. Four tigers. Two red pandas. One tree kangaroo. One colobus monkey. An orang-utan on the way.
Melbourne Zoos attendance must be higher than average this year. With two baby elephants and a litter of tiger cubs already and now a baby orang utan it's been an exciting year. I can't wait to visit again soon to see this new arrival. Thanks for sharing the news Chlidonias.
Great news! Every orang birth in captivity is one to celebrate! How many breeding orangs does Melbourne have exactly? Which individuals are in the collection?
Melbourne haven't been 'trying' to breed Orangutans recently though- AFAIK Maimunah was on contraceptives for a long time after her first baby, presumably because the Australian region want to limit/stagger births(?). I believe she is still Melbourne's only breeding female. I am a bit concerned about them mentioning her slow recovery from the birth but hope that is only temporary.
As a mother, I was concerned about the phrase 'because of the size of the baby' and presume it's a large one, if she was overdue as suggested above. Ouch!
Melbourne has the one breeding pair. There are now six orangutans at the zoo - a mother/daughter hybrid group, Santan and Maimunah, their son Menyaru (who must be about 6 or 7 now) and the newborn female. Menyaru divides his time between sharing an enclosure with his parents and mixing with the hybrid group.
There are noe 4 naming options for the youngster: Ayu meaning "Beautiful" Dewi meaning "Goddess/Princess" Melati meaning "Jasmine (flower)" Surya meaning "light"
