Matchmaking, parenting classes: The Sacramento Zoo's baby orangutan came after of years of careful planning

Big news came out of the Sacramento Zoo this month — a 19-year-old Sumatran orangutan Indah, who has lived at the zoo since 2017, gave birth to a baby boy.

The last time the zoo ushered in the birth of an orangutan was in 1981, over 40 years ago. There are only 79 Sumatran orangutans in the United States living under human care, which makes this birth a big deal for the zoo.

The infant, who has not yet been named, was the culmination of years of planning, preparation and around-the-clock care. His birth is a huge success for the zoo and its research partners.

There are three species of orangutan — Sumatran, Bornean, and Tapanuli — all of which are located in Indonesia or Malaysia. All three are considered critically endangered, which is just one step before becoming extinct in the wild.

CapRadio’s Vicki Gonzalez spoke with Melissa McCartney, the Sacramento Zoo’s senior manager for animal care and veterinary health services, to learn more about the zoo’s journey in animal conservation and bringing this new baby primate into their care.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Interview Highlights

On why breeding Sumatran orangutans can be a long process

They are a fascinating animal because they have one of the longest motherhoods. We think of, in human terms, how long we might care for an infant, how long we might have our child with us. Orangutans rival us.

It’s not unusual for a female orangutan to parent her offspring for eight years — so a long childhood and a lot of work on mom’s part goes into raising that infant.

On pairing up mother Indah with father Makan

We’ve got to let them decide if they are a compatible couple — and we’re lucky. Through several years together, Makan and Indah did show good affinity for one another. At that point, they take over and decide what our timeline is.

Everything’s monitored pretty carefully, but we were hopeful this was the direction it would head, and we were really pleased when we found out that they were definitely interested in being mom and dad themselves.

Mother to the unnamed male baby orangutan, Indah.Courtesty of the Sacramento Zoo

On the work that went into planning for orangutan parenthood

This was planned. [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] Zoos, like the Sacramento Zoo, work with all of our partner institutions. We work on something called SSP, a species survival plan, where we're all working together collectively.

… When we knew Indah was recommended to come to Sacramento, [we decided] she would be paired up with our male Makan, and there would potentially be babies in our future.

That's when the real work began. We wanted Indah and Makan — and their roommate Cheli, who herself has had offspring in the past — to begin some pretty intensive training. We wanted them to know what was coming and to give them the skills to be successful parents.

A lot of [the training helps them] understand how to parent an infant. We [humans] may see our mom with younger siblings. We may have an aunt or somebody else in our life that kind of shows us the ropes. A lot of us, during pregnancy, might take parenting classes.

For the orangutans, what we're focusing on is teaching [Indah, Cheli and Makan] to be gentle with this baby. We're teaching them appropriate carrying techniques. It might not be something that comes naturally when you have an infant ready to cling to you — there's no BabyBjörns in the orangutan world.

We use videos of other orangutans with their infants to let the adults get used to what sounds might be coming from a new baby crying at all hours. Orangutan newborns [are] just like humans. We also try to train cooperative behaviors that could help us in an emergency, or if something seemed off with the infant after it was born.

We worked with Indah on a safe place she could place her offspring [after the birth] so that we could move her away and we could get in there to check on him. Obviously, that's a difficult thing — what mom wants to just hand over her infant?

But it's important because we can't communicate a medical concern or something like that. We just need her to have such a good relationship with her team that she trusts us to be that close to her baby.