Zoo orangutans are important ambassadors

Zoos today are doing a fabulous job at educating the public about the orangutan crisis. Several U.S. zoos are participating in Orangutan Awareness Week (Nov. 9-15), and I've blogged about their activities at Orangutan Watch.

With presentations covering rainforest destruction, palm oil, and the pet trade, zoos are vital messengers about the desperate need for orangutan conservation. The 550 orangutans residing in U.S. and European zoos are important ambassadors to the upright primates who are largely uninformed about these wonderful Asian great apes.

I am new to ZooChat. I hope people post about zoo orangutan programs -- I'd like to add to our collaborative education effort at Orangutan Watch. If you want an orangutan activity posted to our website, email me at [email protected]

 

I was just about to start a thread celebrating orangutans to mark Orangutan Awareness Week! I agree that zoo orangutans are great ambassadors for their species and wonder what stories people have about their charm and intelligence.
I mentioned on the 'I think zoos are taking over my life' thread that Paignton's male, Demo, is gradually demolishing the orangutan island. He started a while ago by pulling planks off a platform and has graduated to completely removing the top from a fallen platform, triumphantly carrying the bolts and fixtures indoors (sadly not allowed to keep them!). Today I noticed that he's now working on the bridge leading from the ape house to the island and it has a hole in the middle of it.
Female Mali is intent on removing all the bedding from the house to the island and you can often see a mound of wood wool seemingly making its way over the bridge by itself, Mali being hidden underneath it.
Female Gambira's main hobby is eating and when she's outside she uses as little energy as possible eating her way round the island.
Until her death in May aged 47, Bulu would watch everything that went on in the ape house and on a nice day would set up camp in the sunshine on her favourite spot on the island, where she also had a good view of comings and goings.
Then there was my namesake, Gigit, who, while at Twycross and Paignton, trained at least 4 people (me included) to bring bags of 'interesting things' to show her. Her legacy is that other orangutans now benefit from this 'enrichment'. Handreared, she connected well with people and always drew a crowd.
I could go on (and on and on)...........

 

Ah, so it's just me then! No wonder people's eyes glaze over when I start talking about orangutans

 

Not in the least . . . Sumatrans are a close third for me (after gorillas and bonobos) although Borneans rate a little lower.

Alan

 

Orangutans are awesome, fav great ape, they are so unqiue and intelligent, although I wanted an elephant I got this cool shirt of an orangutan, it official from sarawak. Boreneo's or Sumatran I think they are both great,

 

It's not just you

If anyone looks into the eyes of ANY orangutan -- we have 4 hybrids here at Smithsonian National Zoo, in addition to 2 young Borneans -- they are hooked for life. We have one young woman who comes back from California every year on her birthday to see Bonnie Orangutan. Who can not love the philosophers of the forest??

 

just wondering is there any genectic difference at all between the two subspecies? and if so I presume there is very little,

 

wow, thanks, so like Asian and African elephants?

 

yeah I heard, sub-species raise a lot of debate you also have to consider if the desert elephant is off on its own, same with the asian: Sri lankan, Indian, south-east asian and sumatran, but can be broken down even more due to the characristics change from each country!

 

The differences between the orangutan species have practical implications for zoos. The AZA's Species Survival Program for orangutans won't allow any more interbreeding. AZA zoos have 83 Borneans, 81 Sumatrans, and 40 hybrids. No babies, then, for our hybrids: National Zoo just gave Bonnie and Iris tubal ligations (and Lucy's tubes were tied a while back). They were quite the sight, with their shaved bellies! I understand that at least one non-AZA zoo in the States allows their hybrids to pair, and they've had some very happy births.

 

I'm sorry, I'm a little confused here, if orangutans, borneon and sumatrans are distinctly different in genectic material, how is there so many hybrids, ? is their strange similiar enough not to cause many distinct abnormalties?

 

I'm told that experts can tell the difference between the two, but it takes DNA testing to really differentiate the orangutans who were born in captivity. Most of the books I've read talk about differences in hair color, type of beard, and cheek pad differences between the males. Our hybrids are healthy and delightful. Lucy is going strong at 36 years old, Bonnie will be 32 in December, so it doesn't appear to affect their health -- at least, not yet.

 

Sounds great, in your opinion what gender shows more recessiveness? e.g Male borneon- offspring shows more Borneon Characteristics, ??

 

Oh my goodness, that's way above my pay grade! We need an expert to help us out here.

 

oh I am sorry I'm asking too much here,

 

You're not asking too much. It's just that I know too little.

 

I couldn't put it better myself. Sumatrans have a 'something' that Borneans seem to lack. There are many subtle differences not only in appearance but apparently in their metabolism and activity levels too. Sumatrans can be almost frenetically active as youngsters and remain considerably more agile and active in adulthood. In the 1930's Philadelphia Zoo (USA) which kept both Bornean and Sumatrans described the Borneans as 'phlegmatic' while the Sumatrans were 'almost like Chimpanzees.'

 

It is certainly apparent at Chester new enclosure, when it was first open. The Sumatrans would be playing and climbing and not still for long periods. Then you would walk around towards the Borneans and all you would see was a sack or a ball of orange fur. Which would stay like that for hours on end!