Great excitement as first orangutan is born at Jerusalem Biblical Zoo

Cayaha, a name that means ‘light’ in Indonesian, born as part of European zoo breeding program, as critically endangered wild populations continue to dwindle

Just 10 days after giving birth, Soga ventured out into the morning sunshine, clamped a sheet in her left foot, and with her baby clinging onto her neck, used her two arms to shimmy up a rope to a high hammock.

There, she settled down and pulled the sheet over her head to mimic the leaves that would have naturally covered her in the forests of Borneo.

Tiny Cayaha, which means ‘light’ in Indonesian, who weighed around a kilogram (2.2 pounds) at birth, is the first orangutan to be born at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo. He will stay with his mom for the next seven to nine years, during which Soga will not have any other offspring.

Zoo handlers are not sure which of the two orangutan males there is the father, but suspect it is Ito, aged 20, rather than Kesato, just 15.

Male orangutans are not involved in raising their young, but Soga has already shown the newcomer off to the males.

“We are so excited,” said Lior Luzon, head of the Zoo’s carnivore department, who is also responsible for the orangutans.

Female orangutans reach sexual maturity at 10 to 15 years. Soga, 13, gave birth as part of a European zoo breeding program.

Orangutans, which live around 35 years in the wild and up to 50 years in zoos, hail from the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia, but today survive only in parts of Sumatra and Borneo.

Illegally traded as pets, hunted, and facing shrinking forest habitats thanks to logging, climate-related fires, and the replacement of forests with oil palm groves, they are now critically endangered.

As Luzon explained, without the forest, they simply cannot survive.

The zoo has two large enclosures for orangutans, which, in the wild, are often solitary. They are furnished with all manner of ropes, poles, and netting to imitate a forest.

Twice a day, each of the four handlers interacts with a different orangutan, communicating with them in sign language and asking them to touch their noses or mouths, or to use other limbs, so they can check for illness and, if necessary, administer medicine. The team must constantly invent new ways to hide food to encourage the animals to use their brains and to move around.

Orangutans are highly intelligent and make their own tools. Luzon explained that they will bend a stick at 90 degrees to pull out a peanut, or split a stick to create a fork to ease out special ape cookies. Soga will teach her baby how to select sticks of different lengths and to shape them for different purposes.

Soga, born in a Swedish zoo, was able to watch her mother rear another baby.

The other female, Sinta, 12, who has not yet given birth, is playing the role of the perfect sister. She helps to groom Soga and comes over when Cayaha cries, Luzon said, learning the skills she will need when it’s her turn to have a baby. Sinta was present at the birth, Luzon went on, while the two males were so shocked they had to be transferred to another area to regain their composure. They will remain separated from the two females for a few more days.

After a smooth pregnancy lasting over eight months, the delivery took several hours. Soga could be seen changing positions on a webcam, while Sinta stayed close by. Luzon said he knew the baby was out when he saw Sinta standing for a long time. “I went to look, for 20 seconds, and heard the baby crying,” he said. “Once I saw that Soga was holding the baby and licking his head, that she was bonding, I left them in peace. Those were critical moments.”

In nature, orangutans build nests in the trees each night. At the zoo, they also build with straw and arrange their sheets and blankets, either within their sleeping quarters or outside in the hammocks when the nights are sufficiently warm.

Having spent the initial days after birth in her nest, Soga is increasingly venturing out, and the handlers are slowly rebuilding the daily interaction sessions.

This is not the first orangutan to be born in Israel. At least two have been born at the Ramat Gan Safari in central Israel, and some think there was a birth at the biblical zoo’s predecessor site in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood.

But it’s the first at the biblical zoo, and an important addition to the world’s shrinking orangutan population.

Luzon emphasized the importance of educating the public about these and other animals. He added that in the future, orangutans from the European breeding program could be reintroduced into the wild to help replenish dwindling populations.

“They are such chilled, gentle, sensitive animals,” he added. “And humans are just ruining things for them. If I could say anything to them, it would be to say sorry for what humans are doing to them in nature.”