Zoo worker teaches orangutan to breastfeed

Virginia
USA: Zoo worker teaches mother orangutan how to breastfeed

Orangutan Zoe couldn’t breastfeed her first child. So that it would work with the second baby, the Metro Richmond Zoo in the US state of Virginia relied on live demonstrations.

Because Zoe couldn’t hold and breastfeed her first baby properly, she had to be bottle-fed. The female orangutan, who lives at the Metro Richmond Zoo in the US state of Virginia, lost her own mother when she was nine months old and therefore probably never experienced firsthand how to raise a cub, the zoo speculates. When Zoe became pregnant again last year, it was therefore decided to prepare her intensively for the offspring. With some very unusual methods.

“Unusual favor”: Employee should show orangutan breastfeeding

Zoo employee Jessica Gring told Good Morning America that she and her colleagues worked creatively during Zoe’s nearly nine-month pregnancy to ensure she was able to raise her baby on her own. A screen installed in the enclosure showed 24-hour videos showing other orangutan mothers giving birth and caring for their young. In addition, Jessica Gring carried an orangutan cuddly toy with her almost every day, the fabric limbs wrapped around her neck and waist – just like the mother animal was soon to carry her offspring herself.

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She also used the dummy to show Zoe how to check her baby’s health and eat while holding the cub. “I spread the stuffed animal’s legs and held it out for Zoe to look at,” Jessica Gring said in one Notification from the zoo. “As soon as the cub was born, Zoe came over to me and did exactly the same thing, showing me his feet and body and letting me look at him.” After the baby was born in December, the zoo’s vet also asked another employee for an “unusual favor,” the statement said.

Whitlee Turner, a new mother, was offered to breastfeed her son Caleb in front of the primate mother. The employee, who is very familiar with the history of the great ape, agreed immediately. In two sessions, she breastfed her then three-month-old son in front of Zoe, hoping the great ape would learn from a live demonstration. “The whole time I was talking to her and pointing at her, pointing at the baby, pointing at her breasts,” says Whitlee Turner. “She watched me curiously. She didn’t breastfeed her baby right away, but she definitely watched the whole time.”

“We chose to do this because orangutans are very visual animals. They are very, very intelligent and essentially share 97 percent of human DNA,” Jessica Gring explained in an interview with “Good Morning America“. The desired mirror effect occurred: Less than 24 hours later, Zoe breastfed her baby for the first time. And not only that: the orangutan mother has since taken care of her son independently. The still nameless baby is healthy and keep gaining weight.

Sources: “Good Morning America“, Metro Richmond Zoo