Melbourne Zoo Orang-utan Sanctuary opens...

they have the largest apart from humans, the young stay with there mother for up to 10 years, funny this, males young stay with the mother longer, than females, they are around 8 when they leave the nest.

i think melbourne will, australia is now focusing on the sumatrans as perth has such a good recored, its over 10 isnt it, as well as 1 that was released to wild a few months ago.
 
I think its an accepted fact that wild male Sumatran orangs frequently associate with females and offspring, so in zoos can be shown as a family group. This doesn't work well with Borneans tho'- the males will kill babies sometimes.I've read this is thought to be a basic biological difference caused by the presence of Tigers on Sumatra, where a powerful male orang could play a defensive role- the Orangs on Borneo -with no tigers- evolved without this behaviour.

Certainly it seems to be the case in some captive situations.

Yep, its now believed young orangutans stay for eight or more years with mum- a long -learning period. Didn't know there was a different age of leaving according to the sex though.

Melbourne could probably add another purebred female from Perth, at the expense of their hybrids. When I first saw Santan years ago he had a horrible short coat, but nowadays he has an excellent long coat.
 
santan is a great-looking ape! i really love that orangs are getting the cred they deserve, they are undoutably as facinating and beutiful as gorillas, yet often never seem to get quite as much exposure (or money spent on their exhibits) as gorillas do...

i see no rason why melbournes hybrid orangs cannot live out their lives at the zoo. melbourne bred them, so its their responsibility. i had this terrible fear that they would be offered to david gill when he opened mareeba and planned for orang-utans. they still offer an equal amount of educational value even though we are not able to breed them. however with just three enclosures, i'm not sure, due to management reasons, how many orangs they can take on. at the moment there a five orangs and three simanags all rotating around the place, if they had another mother infant that needed seperating occasionaly it could get difficult.....
 
I'm not sure which one this is, but it's one of the Melbourne twins....



I think I'm starting to show my age now :o
 
awwww!

they were hugely popular when they were born. i remember those old zoo posters with paintings of the two with their arms around eahother. you would see them in schoolclassrooms all over melbourne.

i love those old photos..
 
I've got zillions more oldies Patrick. If there's anything in particular you want, shoot me a PM and I'll see what I've got. I do like an old trip down memory lane!!
 
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