When did Karta come to Adelaide? Was she matched with (the now deceased) Pusung to breed or just companions until Kluet arrived? Thanks!
I think she came to Adelaide in the mid-nineties (sorry, I'm not sure the exact year). Pusung came to Adelaide in 2000 I believe, and they did have several unsuccessful births together.
I don't know exactly how many offspring she has had but its several and all have resulted in failure. I would be interested to know what happened with each- was she aggressive, or neglectful or some other reason such as mentioned, she can't suckle them. I thought she killed at least one of the earlier babies, maybe not, but from the more recent births it now sounds as if her maternal instinct actually isn't the problem. Does anyone have a record of her breeding to date? From the above posts it appears she is currently pregnant again now and they are preparing for it. I think in this day and age, it would be possible to handrear without the baby losing its species identity and later responses, given adequate socialisation early on, as is routinely done with handraised Gorillas nowadays. Keeping it familiar with the mother, and possibly returning it to her at a later stage. Last resort of course and the supplementary feeding option where it stays with the mother is a much better one if they can do that.
Don't know how many offspring Karta has had, but the number 4 springs to mind for some reason. Appreciate where you are coming from re: hand-rearing and socialisation. Just not sure that Karta is the right individual for this experiment. She has not shown all of the behaviours one might hope for following birth. What happens if she doesn't show any interest in the offspring - does Adelaide end up with another headcase? The best result then would be to send the youngster to Perth where there are plenty of females that would be interested in looking after it while being hand-raised by keepers. Stuttgart does a similar thing for all European zoos with apes. And the argument doesn't explain why they have Puspa? Odd decision.
By all accounts, Karta was very attentive to her second most recent infant (the most recent was stillborn). I guess we'll see how this all pans out soon.
And as I said above, if she carried the stillborn for several days, that also indicates strong maternal instinct. It will indeed be interesting to see how this works out- fingers crossed for a successful outcome after such a lot of failure with her.
I would imagine they hoped to breed from Puspa first, so that she would indeed be an example to Karta- though as I said above, I do not think adult females learn anything new by example, once they have passed their formative years anyway. Puspa hasn't bred so that idea hasn't worked anyway. If they did need a 'foster-mother' for the baby- if Karta wasn't interested that is, then Puspa might still have a role to play though she wouldn't(normally) be able to feed it herself. However I think Karta's problems now may revolve around feeding an infant, more than actually withholding maternal care. I wish them all success this time around with her after the repeated failures.
I still maintain that despite Puspa having successfully reared one offspring she isn't the best role-model for Karta. She is also particularly antisocial, so trying to integrate Karta with her will be difficult. It will be interesting to see how they manage all three adults, let alone throwing a newborn into the mix. You may well be correct that Karta's problems stem from feeding the baby rather than actual maternal care.
I don't know how they keep them grouping-wise( is it Karta seperate, with the other two together?) but I wasn't suggesting Karta and Puspa should share an enclosure together, especially while one of them was trying to raise or act as a surrogate parent to a baby- if that scenario arose. Only suggesting that Puspa might be a suitable subject for that if the need arose and Karta rejected it. They are probably better off living seperately anyway if an infant were involved.
Kluet and Karta live together as a pair, while Puspa lives alone. I think they tried introducing Puspa to Kluet by himself but he is so attached to Karta that he did not accept her, leaving her having to be separated. Interesting idea that it could be a possibility to use Puspa as a surrogate if Karta rejects/hurts/is unable to feed her baby. Even though she isn't the best of mothers, a different baby might 'spark' her maternal istincts to start (e.g. at Columbus Zoo, Toni the gorilla never raised her own offspring but is currently successfully raising a surrogate youngster).
So was Puspa essentially always off-display, given there is only one orang enclosure at Adelaide Zoo, and just kept out the back somewhere? Or inside?
She was off-display until now. They probably have some off-display enclosures out back were she was able to go outside (not sure if they are cages or open-topped enclosures? Probably the former).
As well as the night dens there is an off-display cage, which was used to house the siamangs at one point. I assume that's where Puspa has been living. I believe she's had opportunities to use the main enclosure before now, but has only just recently felt comfortable in using it, almost certainly as a result of Karta and Kluet's absence.
I only 'know' a few of the Apes in Australia, from my odd visits to Perth, Melbourne and Taronga in the past. I've never been to Adelaide but 'Karta' is still very familiar to me because of the repeated reports over the years of yet another breeding failure. So I'm watching again with interest this time.
The zoo has announced on their Facebook page that Karta's infant did not survive. It is believed that the infant was stillborn, but this has yet to be confirmed. So, so sad.
So sad that she lost another infant. My heart goes out to her and her keepers. It's also sad to see so many misinformed people blaming the zoo for a tragedy that could not be foreseen.
Sad news . I'm afraid that is probably the last straw and Karta will become a designated non-breeding female. Hopefully Kluet can somehow introduce his genetics into the Australian population....
And there is also an article about the loss here: Adelaide Zoo orangutan Karta mourns loss of sixth baby - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) It notes that cause of death is unknown, although indications are that it was stillborn, and the baby is still with its parents.
Very sad, and yet again history repeats itself for her. I suspect there must be some underlying problem for there to be so many failures with her. The article says its her sixth baby since 1995 (with none surviving).
