SEATTLE — For the first time in over three decades, the Woodland Park Zoo is expecting the arrival of an orangutan baby.
Fourteen-year-old Sumatran orangutan Batu is due to give birth this summer, in late August or early September. The gestation period for orangutans is around nine months.
Orangutans have exceptionally long intervals between birth, only having offspring once every seven to nine years, according to the Woodland Park Zoo. Baby orangutans are completely dependent on their mothers for the first three to four years of life. Mothers don't become empty nesters until their offspring are around seven to eight years old.
The zoo currently has four orangutans who live in two family groups: Batu and her mate Godek - a 15-year-old first-time father-to-be - and a 35-year-old male, Heran, and a 43-year-old female, Belawan, who live in another habitat. Heran was the last orangutan to have been born at the Woodland Park Zoo.
Orangutans are a critically endangered species. They face threats like habitat loss and fragmentation, and illegal hunting.
Batu and Godek were paired together through the Orangutan Species Survival Plan. Species Survival Plans are cooperative breeding programs across accredited zoos to help ensure healthy, self-sustaining populations of threatened and endangered species, according to the Woodland Park Zoo.
"A pregnancy is a very significant milestone for an orangutan and, while we have high hopes for Batu being a good mother and raising her infant, we're also cautiously optimistic because this is her first pregnancy," said Interim Senior Director of Animal Care at Woodland Park Zoo Martin Ramirez. "Our focus has been on providing Batu with the best maternal care program to increase her chances of carrying the fetus to full term and giving birth to a healthy infant."
