Great ape surprises rescuers
Animal supermom: Orangutan adopts child from friend
Supermom Du now looks after two children – and receives support at the Nyaru Menteng rescue center. photo
© Bos Foundation/dpa
For orangutan mothers, a single baby is hard work. In Borneo, the female Du adopted a second child – and surprised experts. The story of a special friendship.
But right from the start: the female Du was taken from her mother as a newborn and illegally smuggled from Borneo to Thailand. Here the primate was kept in an amusement park before she was able to return to her home country in 2006 together with 47 other animals. When she finally arrived at the BOS rescue center Nyaru Menteng, she was ten years old and already too old for rehabilitation and a life of complete freedom. “But she was fit and smart and so she was allowed to move to a pre-poaching island shortly after her quarantine,” reports BOS.
Great mother from the start
Here she gave birth to her first daughter Dea three years after returning home and immediately proved to be a great orang mother. Dea was even released into the wild in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park in 2019. The second daughter Dinda was born in 2016, followed by son Dai in October 2022. Around the same time, her close friend Melata also gave birth to a baby – little Dumel.
Melata was also rescued from Thailand. And it wasn’t her first child either – but fate struck hard: after the birth of her son Melano in 2013, she gave birth to two more children, both of whom died shortly after birth. Motherhood seemed to have returned with daughter Dumel – but then something must have happened.
Melata was last seen in February 2023, with Dumel clinging to her stomach. Shortly afterwards, a male orangutan was spotted with Dumel in his arms. The following day it was a different male orangutan who carried the baby.
Inseparable friends
At this point you intervened. As if it were the most normal thing in the world, she suddenly carried both her son Dai and Dumel on her chest – and protected her from the aggressive males. “The thought that Du, who had an inseparable friendship with Melata since their first meeting, took her daughter Dumel into her arms out of love for her lost friend is heartwarming,” said babysitter Mama Eva.
Twin births are a major exception among orangutans. For mothers, raising even a single baby is hard work. They only have children every six to eight years – the longest birth interval among great apes. To help Du, the small family was temporarily brought back to the Nyaru Menteng rescue center.