Dublin, Ireland

An Orangutan in the Dublin Zoo gave birth to a healthy baby on 31 July but has not been feeding her kid. Therefore, to teach her the process of maternal care, the Dublin Zoo has arranged a group of 30 lactating women from Dublin and its surroundings for mother orangutan as a part of its lactation learning process, where they would breastfeed their babies in front of the mother orangutan, to teach her the process. 

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As per the zoo, she previously gave birth to two kids in 2019 and 2022, but did not have the necessary maternal qualities, due to which both the kids died. 

The Dublin Zoo officials said in a statement that Mujur was very interested in spectating the women feeding their children, and she was also shown videos of other women orangutan feeding their kids as a part of her learning process. 

According to zoo officials, the learning process has some success because Mujur has started taking good maternal care of her infant but still has difficulty putting him in the right position for feeding. Therefore, the zoo had no other option than to separate the kid from the mother and bottle-feed him. 

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Zoo officials said, “As is international best practice, we do not typically intervene in these situations to ensure conditions are as natural as possible.” They added, “While we had been hopeful for a better outcome where Mujur could care for the infant effectively, we had also been planning for this scenario.”

The zoo officials decided to send Mujur’s infant to Monkey World, an institution in the United Kingdom that specialises in raising orangutans and also helps raise infants who have been rejected by their mothers.

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Zoo officials said,  “The Dublin Zoo animal care team is currently looking after the infant around the clock and bottle feeding him, and all involved are extremely proud to be playing a part in the infant’s development.” The officials added that the infant will continue to be cared for by the Dublin Zoo animal care team for another few weeks, before making the trip to his new home. The whole team has already fallen hopelessly in love with him, and it will be difficult to say goodbye, however, we are confident that he is being sent to the best possible place for him to continue to develop and thrive.”

With inputs from agencies