The endangered Sumatran orangutan Menari can be seen climbing inside the Audubon Zoo enclosure in New Orleans. The zoo announced Thursday that Menari is pregnant with twins.
Susan Pogue / Digital Lou Photo
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The endangered Sumatran orangutan Menari can be seen climbing inside the Audubon Zoo enclosure in New Orleans. The zoo announced Thursday that Menari is pregnant with twins.
Susan Pogue / Digital Lou Photo
The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans is a species that wildlife groups consider endangered and welcomes two additions to their families this winter.
Menari, a 12-year-old woman at the zoo Sumatran orangutanIs expecting twins whose father is Jambi, the zoo’s male orangutan, the zoo announced Thursday.
Menari is the first to give birth and is expected to be sometime in December or January.
“We are very excited about this pregnancy,” zoo senior veterinarian Bob McLean said in a news release.
According to McLean, twins are extremely rare in orangutans, and twins are only about 1% likely to occur.
Big news! Audubon Zoo does not have one baby Sumatran orangutan, but two more. Menari expects twins with Jambi. These are the first descendants of Menari and will arrive in December or January.
Click here for details: https://t.co/eja4EmVAGM pic.twitter.com/fIqHOm3uhG
— Audubon Nature Institute (@AudubonNature) October 21, 2021
According to zoo officials, the twins were born in 1985 at the same zoo to the orangutan Sarah (Bontemp aka “Bonnie” and Laguniappe aka “Lana”). Both grew up at Audubon Zoo.
Lana is still alive Greenville Zoo In South Carolina. Bonnie died in 2016 at the Miami Zoo.
She has never given birth, but zoo officials say Menari was able to observe her mother, Feliz, give birth, and raise her half-sisters. Blanc In 2019.
Menari, one of the Sumatran orangutans at Audubon Zoo, will give birth to its first offspring in December or January.
Susan Pogue / Digital Lou Photo
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Susan Pogue / Digital Lou Photo
Menari, one of the Sumatran orangutans at Audubon Zoo, will give birth to its first offspring in December or January.
Susan Pogue / Digital Lou Photo
The staff not only works with Menari to train motherhood, but also reassures the staff that they may intervene to care for one or both newborns as needed.
“The bond between orangutans and her youth is one of the strongest in nature. Orangutans spend more time with their mothers than most mammals, and female orangutans continue to visit their mothers until their teens.” Said Jan Vertefeuille. World Wildlife Fund By email to NPR.
However, Vertefeuille says that the bond between orangutans and their children influences the extinction of the species. When poachers look for babies for illegal wildlife trade, orangutan mothers are more likely to be killed than giving up their children.
The World Wildlife Fund cites pet trade and habitat loss as two of the greatest threats facing the world’s orangutan species.
Believed to be Less than 14,000 Sumatran orangutan living in the wild Palm oil plantation Spread to their habitat.
Endangered Sumatran orangutans in New Orleans give birth to twins: NPR
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