Perth Zoo Perth Zoo orangutans

Abbey said:
I didn't know that Nias had only given birth to her first offspring in 2010 - that goes towards explaining why it hadn't been identified earlier. Once Denver had experienced the issue, as others as mentioned this was able to assist the Adelaide keepers and unfortunately all of Karta's subsequent infants were stillborn.
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The first clues were when Karta delivered her fourth offspring in 2011, which lived for four days. Keepers had named the infant ‘Sayang’ and tragically the post mortem revealed no milk in its stomach, indicating feeding had been unsuccessful.

Karta had been previously loaned to Perth to learn maternal care through observation, but ultimately any preparation was in vain when there was the overriding medical anomaly.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Karta had been previously loaned to Perth to learn maternal care through observation, but ultimately any preparation was in vain when there was the overriding medical anomaly.
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I remember reading about all the issues with Karta back in the day. Its quite likely that she had full maternal instinct, probably making her stay at Perth unnecessary, but as they later found out, she couldn't feed her babies. It was indeed a very tragic sequence of events and with no final happy outcome at the end either to reward them for the considerable efforts taken at solving the problem.
 
Johnpaul21 said:
@marmolady Could you ID the orangutan in this recent short posted to Perth Zoos instagram.
(Or anyone else if they know)

Perth Zoo on Instagram: "Since you all loved the last orangutan spa day, here’s part two! Keeper Mel"
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Jambo said:
Looks like Sungai. He's slowly developing those cheek pads as you can see in the video.
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That definitely looks like Sungai. His fur has darkened significantly (typical of a male); and he’s grown an impressive beard (though I note that isn’t unique to males of the Sumatran species).
 
After looking at my photos my photo of Sungai below is very similar to the video so I'd you guys are correct :)

- Also what happened to Semeru Orangutan? The sign board says he lived from 2005-2013, does anyone know the cause of his death?
 

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I just saw the most amazing photo on Facebook ( Borneo Orang-u-tan Survival (BOS) Australia) of a albino Orang-u-tan named Alba a unbelievable photo she has the most amazing clear blue eyes! The only one in the world.
 
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Johnpaul21 said:
After looking at my photos my photo of Sungai below is very similar to the video so I'd you guys are correct :)

- Also what happened to Semeru Orangutan? The sign board says he lived from 2005-2013, does anyone know the cause of his death?
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Unfortunately Semeru died of a bite from a venomous pit-viper while sleeping in a tree:

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/semeru-perth-zoo-orangutan-released-into-wild-killed-by-snakebite-ng-59a2630b8620b19ae32628d48870123e.amp

It was a tragic end to his much celebrated release - which was followed by the thus far successful release of Nyaru; and preceded by the release of Temara.
 
On my recent visit I was informed that Sungai previously only liked being in an enclosure by himself, not sure if it’s because he’s a young male but as of recent he has really been enjoying being in with only one other orangutan, Lestari. Apparently besides his mother Lestari is the only one he enjoys being with and I got some cool photos of them hugging together.

Image 1 Sungai - Image 2 Sungai & Lestari hugging- image 3 Lestari (As you can tell by the dark fur from her mum Pulang and dad Hsing Hsing)
 

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Johnpaul21 said:
On my recent visit I was informed that Sungai previously only liked being in an enclosure by himself, not sure if it’s because he’s a young male but as of recent he has really been enjoying being in with only one other orangutan, Lestari. Apparently besides his mother Lestari is the only one he enjoys being with and I got some cool photos of them hugging together.

Image 1 Sungai - Image 2 Sungai & Lestari hugging- image 3 Lestari (As you can tell by the dark fur from her mum Pulang and dad Hsing Hsing)
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Judging from the photos Sungai appears to be a immature male (lack of flanges) and thus more tolerant of a juvenile.
 
Johnpaul21 said:
On my recent visit I was informed that Sungai previously only liked being in an enclosure by himself, not sure if it’s because he’s a young male but as of recent he has really been enjoying being in with only one other orangutan, Lestari. Apparently besides his mother Lestari is the only one he enjoys being with and I got some cool photos of them hugging together.

Image 1 Sungai - Image 2 Sungai & Lestari hugging- image 3 Lestari (As you can tell by the dark fur from her mum Pulang and dad Hsing Hsing)
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Female orangutans have a greater attraction towards flanged males, so Sungai (an unflanged male) not being housed with the other females (all adults) could be as much about their disinterest in him at this stage.

Lestari is 13 years old and a young adult/adolescent female who’s the same age as Sungai, so it could be that she’s more receptive to him. They’re both young and playful and clearly have a good relationship, which is nice to see.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Female orangutans have a greater attraction towards flanged males, so Sungai (an unflanged male) not being housed with the other females (all adults) could be as much about their disinterest in him at this stage.

Lestari is 13 years old and a young adult/adolescent female who’s the same age as Sungai, so it could be that she’s more receptive to him. They’re both young and playful and clearly have a good relationship, which is nice to see.
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Yeah I’d agree that sounds the most likely why but the only loophole is Teliti (2009) who is also one of the 3 young ones, wonder why he doesn’t hang out with her…
 
Johnpaul21 said:
Yeah I’d agree that sounds the most likely why but the only loophole is Teliti (2009) who is also one of the 3 young ones, wonder why he doesn’t hang out with her…
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It’s possible that in addition to individual preferences being at play here; Teliti being two years older than Sungai has unbalanced the dynamic:

0.1 Teliti (20/10/2009) Hsing Hsing x Puteri
1.0 Sungai (30/12/2011) Dinar x Sekara
0.1 Lestari (09/01/2012) Hsing Hsing x Pulang

When Auckland Zoo formed their colony of Bornean orangutans with the import of 2.2 juveniles in the 1980’s, by the 1990’s and into the 2000’s, Indra (born 1980) showed a marked preference for Horst (1978) over Charlie (1981). A later arrival (eight years Charlie’s junior) was besotted with him. There’s countless reasons why orangutans may prefer some over others, but a common factor appears to be females preferring males who are at least equal in age (if not older).
 
Johnpaul21 said:
How many offspring not has Dinar produced whilst not at Perth Zoo?
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Dinar (1987) sired no offspring prior to his import in 2004.

At Perth Zoo, Dinar has sired three offspring:

1.0 Semeru (13/06/2005) Released 2011
1.0 Nyaru (20/10/2007) Released 2016
1.0 Sungai (30/12/2011) Still at Perth Zoo

Sekara (1990) gave birth to Semeru and Sungai; Negara (1993) gave birth to Nyaru.
 
On a recent orangutan close-encounter I was lucky enough to meet Dinar and Pulang-Who are both currently sharing an exhibit... It was such an amazing experience and cool to learn about Dinar and Pulang- Dinar is really calm and gentle towards females (unlike Hsing-Hsing according to the keeper) Dinar is still dominant when it came to feeding him but it was interesting to note that some members of the colony have never been in with another members except for theirs mothers- I asked about breeding- Still no breeding recommendation but Dinar is still fit too, they will probably wait until they have re-done the exhibit before breeding again. Females eligible are Pulang, Teliti, Lestari- Here's some photos of the 2 :)
 

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Johnpaul21 said:
On a recent orangutan close-encounter I was lucky enough to meet Dinar and Pulang-Who are both currently sharing an exhibit... It was such an amazing experience and cool to learn about Dinar and Pulang- Dinar is really calm and gentle towards females (unlike Hsing-Hsing according to the keeper) Dinar is still dominant when it came to feeding him but it was interesting to note that some members of the colony have never been in with another members except for theirs mothers- I asked about breeding- Still no breeding recommendation but Dinar is still fit too, they will probably wait until they have re-done the exhibit before breeding again. Females eligible are Pulang, Teliti, Lestari- Here's some photos of the 2 :)
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Thanks for the update. Great photos as always.

The breeding hiatus is now 13 years and counting, so the renovations can’t come soon enough.

It seems a shame to retire Sekara (1990) from the breeding programme given she was an exceptional mother to Semeru and Sungai. Presumably Pulang is assessed as more genetically valuable (being first generation as opposed to second); and the younger two second generation females are of prime breeding age.
 
On Perth Zoo media I have added a 2025 photo of every orangutan except for Puteri :( So you can have a name to face-Except the Teliti photo isn't too great.... :)
 
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