Baby Sumatran Orangutan Tripa shares a close relationship with
his mom – in fact, Emma has rarely let her baby out of sight since his birth on
October 19 at the United Kingdom’s Chester Zoo.
Like all Orangutan infants, Tripa completely depends on his
mother for food, transportation, and lots of tender loving care. Orangutans have the longest childhood of all
animals other than humans, with young Orangutans spending up to eight years
with their mothers.
Photo Credits: Phil
Noble/Reuters, Peter Byrne/PA, Chester Zoo
Emma and Puluh, Tripa’s father, are part of the European
Endangered Species Programme, which coordinates breeding between zoos to
maintain genetic diversity in endangered species.
Conservationists estimate that there are fewer than 7,000 Sumatran
Orangutans remaining on the Indonesian island of Sumatra – the only place in
the entire world where this Orangutan subspecies exists.
Tremendous pressure from illegal logging, illegal palm oil plantations, and poaching
have driven wild Orangutan populations to the brink of extinction, making zoo
breeding programs essential to their survival.
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