Bornean orangutan born at Dublin Zoo

On the 31st of July, Dublin Zoo’s 19-year-old orangutan, Mujur, gave birth to a healthy male infant. This beautiful newborn was fathered by Sibu, Dublin Zoo’s beloved orangutan patriarch, who sadly passed away in February.

Orangutans are a critically endangered species, with females typically only giving birth every 3 to 5 years, to one infant at a time, meaning this birth is hugely significant. Sibu’s genetic profile is considered to be extremely important for the Orangutan European breeding program and the whole Dublin Zoo team is so happy to see his legacy live on through this infant.

Mujur has previously given birth to two infants, in 2019 and 2022. For the first 3 years of an orangutan infant’s life, they are completely dependent on their mother for food and transportation. They cling to their mother while she moves, and feed on her breastmilk. This means that maternal qualities are absolutely vital for the wellbeing of the infant. Unfortunately, as can happen in the wild, Mujur did not exhibit the necessary maternal qualities and both infants passed away not long after birth.

In preparation for the birth of this newborn, Dublin Zoo has been working with Mujur for months, leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to give her the best chance possible to develop these necessary maternal qualities.

As part of this, Dublin Zoo began a lactation learning process, putting the call out for volunteers from lactation groups in Dublin and surrounding areas.

A wonderful group of 30 women have generously given their time over the past few months, taking it in turns to breastfeed their infants in front of the pregnant Mujur.

Mujur was extremely interested in watching the women feed their babies through the glass, even mirroring some of their actions. Mujur was also shown videos of other orangutans feeding their babies as part of the learning experience.

These efforts had some success, with Mujur showing good maternal care towards the infant after the birth, however she was not putting him in the right position for feeding. As is international best practice, we do not typically intervene in these situations to ensure conditions are as natural as possible. However, given the importance of this infant and his genetic profile inherited from his father Sibu, the difficult decision was made to separate the infant from Mujur and commence bottle feeding him.

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.

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. Hand-rearing the infant until independence is not a long-term option here at Dublin Zoo, so it is our intention to have the infant cared for at a specialist institution in the UK which is hugely experienced in hand-raising orangutans, subject to necessary health checks. Monkey World is a 65 acre institution officially designated by the Orangutan European breeding program to raise infants who have been rejected by their mother.

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.