Durrell News

New arrival in New Year

2^nd January 2009

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is delighted to announce the pregnancy of Dana, the newest member of its group of Sumatran orangutans in Jersey.

The 20-year-old female arrived in the island last July from Hanover Zoo, and has since integrated well with all six members of the group, including the dominant male, Dagu, the oldest female, Gina who is 43-years-old and the youngest male, Gempa aged three and a half.

The Sumatran orangutan is one of the world’s most threatened species of great ape. Thought to number, at the very most, 7000 individuals in the wild, its status is listed as critically endangered. The greatest threats facing these apes are accelerating destruction of its forest habitat and the illegal live trade of individuals.

Durrell has been successfully breeding orangutans since the 1970s and is also committed to supporting the work of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) headed by a former senior orangutan keeper at the Trust. Without organisations like Durrell and SOCP working to protect and raise awareness of Indonesia’s ape, the Sumatran orangutan could become the first great ape species to go extinct in the wild.

Senior ape keeper, Gordon Hunt, says the news of Dana’s pregnancy couldn't be better: "We are really pleased Dana and Dagu bonded as quickly as they did and we don’t expect any problems with her pregnancy, which at eight and half months is a similar length to people.

"At twenty years old she is a good age to have a youngster, but if help is needed we are very fortunate to be able to call on Neil McLaughlin and his team at Jersey's General Hospital, who delivered Jaya by caesarean section in May 2004."

Dana is due to give birth in May.

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