Batang is a 19-year-old female Bornean orangutan at the National Zoo. And as soon as she met Kyle, a 19-year-old male Bornean orangutan, sparks flew.
And now, the National Zoo announced Tuesday, a baby orangutan is on the subject of the way.
The announcement came after the zoo tweeted the image of a favorable pregnancy test along with a question mark Monday, best to considerably speculation. Just what species was the lucky mama? Panda? Elephant? Tentacled snake?
No. on the subject of Tuesday afternoon, zoo staff did a live ultrasound on the subject of a gleeful Batang, that is at 22 weeks. The gestation time period of orangutans is 35 weeks, and Batang is expected to deliver in September. This fetus was moving, though the zoo didn’t already know yet whether it was a boy or girl.
An orangutan ultrasound. (National Zoo video screenshot)
A human pregnancy test confirmed Batang was expecting on the subject of Feb. 2, the zoo said. Her pregnancy comes 2 years after she was taken off birth control. It is the initial orangutan pregnancy the zoo has actually seen in 25 years.
Batang likewise went with a little a collapse road in motherhood, as the zoo explained in a press release:
For the past 3 years, keepers have actually been acclimating Batang to the encounters of motherhood and training her to care for an infant. Building upon behaviors Batang has actually know with book training sessions, keepers presented her along with a plush, bean-shaped pillow and an orangutan loaded pet to simulate a baby. Keepers trained her to hold the “fake” infant upright, carry it about the enclosure and return the pillow infant to keepers with a specially made “infant box” as soon as asked. Ought to pet care staff should evaluate a actual orangutan baby’s health, this training would certainly advice staff retrieve the child in a means that is secure and not difficult for the animals. Batang has actually likewise been trained to usage a breast pump for dairy collection in the event she is unable to effectively nurse.
Should Batang be “unable or unwilling to care for her infant,” the zoo said, 2 various other orangutans were trained as surrogates.
An orangutan ultrasound. (National Zoo video screenshot)
“All our perseverance and preparing paid off as soon as we confirmed Batang’s pregnancy,” Meredith Bastian, curator of primates and member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Orangutan Species Survival strategy Steering Committee, said in a statement. “Watching her fetus create over the past couple of months has actually been extremely exciting, and we’re making every initiative to make sure our initiatives come to fruition.”
Batang the orangutan. (National Zoo)
Orangutans are native to Indonesia, yet their habitat is threatened as rain woodlands have actually been destroyed. The variety of wild orangutans has actually dropped by 80 percent in the past 75 years, the zoo said.
Batang and Kyle, orangutan parents-to-be. (National Zoo)
