“It was a moment we’ll never forget”: Female Zoo Guest Asked to Teach Orangutan to Breastfeed Her Newborn

On Wednesday, an orangutan at Aalborg Zoo became the mother of a small cub. A female guest taught the new mother how to breastfeed.

A female guest with a newborn baby has helped teach an orangutan at Aalborg Zoo how to breastfeed her young.

This is stated by the zoo in a press release.

The orangutan Ruti gave birth to her cub on Wednesday, but had difficulty living up to the role of new mother in the following 24 hours.

This is partly because orangutans in the wild typically learn motherhood by observing their own mothers. But Ruti has not had that role model to look up to, so Aalborg Zoo had to think of unconventional methods.

First, a zookeeper tried to demonstrate how breastfeeding works using a teddy bear. But it didn’t work.

Later on Thursday, however, the female guest was found, who agreed to do the same with her newborn.

“It was a moment we will never forget. She put the baby down and it started to suckle. You could almost feel the relief spreading throughout the zoo,” says Kenneth Madsen, zookeeper responsible for the primates at Aalborg Zoo, in the announcement.

ritzau