Babysitting at the Zoo

 

More than 50 humans filling in for orangutan mom. The Houston Zoo is inviting the public to help name the baby. For information, visit www.houstonzoo.org/endangered-orangutan-birth/

Baby orangutans cling to their mothers around the clock.

That's why staff members at the Houston Zoo's Wortham World of Primates had to crank up an army of human caretakers when an adult female orangutan rejected her newborn March 2.

More than 50 people, including staff members and volunteers, are taking turns at being surrogate mom to the 5-pound infant, as yet unnamed.

"She's a lot of work, this baby, but she's worth it," said Lynn Killam, the zoo's supervisor of carnivores.

Staff members were surprised when the mother, Kelly, rejected the baby after nursing her several times over a 12-hour period, said Hollie Colahan, curator of primates and carnivores.

“Unfortunately, Kelly abandoned the infant later in the day and refused repeated attempts to return the baby to her,” said Colahan. Concerned for the welfare of the infant, the primate staff made the decision to hand rear the baby.

Since baby orangutans spend their first year of life clinging to their mother, the hand rearing process taking place in the orangutan night house at Wortham World of Primates means the baby is clinging to her care givers 24 hours a day 7 days a week until she is ready to move about on her own. The baby’s diet is human baby formula.  The transition to other foods will occur as she grows and matures.

The hand rearing process is taking place in view of the Zoo’s 6 orangutans. The infant’s care givers will be monitoring her for developmental milestones over a period of months that will indicate when she is ready to be reintroduced to either Kelly or Cheyenne, a proven surrogate mother. The care team will be closely monitoring Kelly and Cheyenne to gauge their interest in the baby.

The baby is healthy and is drinking human infant formula from a bottle but is not ready to meet the public.

She's grown from her birth weight of about 3 pounds to about 5 pounds.

Caring for a tiny orangutan involves more than feeding it.

Since mother orangutans don't hold their young, it's critical that the baby learn to cling, Killam said.

"If you're not an experienced caregiver, it's easy to sort of want to treat it like a human baby," Killam said. "But mother orangutans don't hold. The babies have to cling."

One way to encourage that is by wearing clothing she can grasp.

"At first it was sweatshirts and squishable fabrics that she could grab with all four limbs," Killam said. "Now we have 'monster fur' that we've made some hairy vests out of."

The baby also has a stuffed orangutan toy to cling to.

The goal in this case is to reintroduce the baby soon to her mother or to the zoo's other adult female orangutan, Cheyenne, Colahan said.

Before that can happen, the baby has to be mobile enough to come to the side of the cage, where zookeepers will feed her by bottle through the cage.

Kelly delivered the first great ape born at the Houston Zoo, a female orangutan, Luna bela on September 18, 1997. At the time, Kelly was a gentle mother, but she could not figure out how to let her baby nurse.  Luna was hand raised, fed and held by Zoo keepers and other staff 24 hours a day for the first few months of her life to mimic orangutan mothering.

Cheyenne, the Zoo’s other adult female orangutan, acted as Luna’s surrogate mother, following a two-year period of introduction. Kelly’s second offspring Solaris was born in July 2003 and she proved to be an excellent, doting mother. Solaris is now 7 years old and seems quite curious about his new sibling.

The zoo's six other orangutans get to observe the human caretakers. They seem interested and take up positions to watch.

There is a video from the Zoo on YouTube.  It’s copyright protected, so I can’t imbed it in my story, but you can view it  Here.