Toronto 
There is a new baby at the Toronto Zoo!
Credit: Toronto Zoo
Canada’s largest zoo has announced the birth of a new critically endangered Sumatran orangutan.
The baby was born on Friday April 8 at 3:06 p.m. to twenty-nine-year-old mother, Sekali and sixteen-year old father, Budi. Both parents were also born at the Toronto zoo.
Toronto Zoo
This is the second offspring for twenty-nine-year-old Sekali, who gave birth to her son, Kembali, in 2006,
The baby was born after 243 days long pregnancy – a typical length for an orangutan and about a month shorter than in humans.
Orangutan babies weigh 1.3 kgs – 2.3 kgs at birth and female orangutans gain less than 4.5 kgs during pregnancy.
Credit: Toronto Zoo
Sumatran orangutans are Critically Endangered species and their conservation status was upgraded in 2017 by the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN).
According to the news release, the world has lost an estimated 120,000 orangutans in the past decade as acres of the Sumatran rainforest – the orangutan’s natural habitat – are removed to make way for oil palm plantations.
Currently, there are fewer than 15,000 Sumatran orangutans that can be found in the wild and 95% of these orangutans live in the Greater Leuser Ecosystem on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The Toronto Zoo currently houses the only Sumatran orangutans in Canada and thirteen orangutans have been raised at the zoo since 1974.
In addition to conservation research, the Toronto Zoo team supports Sumatran orangutan conservation efforts in the wild to help save and protect this critically endangered species.
You can support Toronto Zoo conservation efforts by making a donation to the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy, or through the Adopt an Animal program.
Recently, an endangered Masai Giraffe baby was born at the zoo.
The Zoo is holding a Spring Market this week.
