I've been really busy with work and projects leading up to the holidays. My life at work got a lot easier this week, though.
On Thursday, we introduced Mahal (the baby orangutan we've been raising) to Sandra, one of our female orangutans. Sandra is 51-years-old, which is probably equivalent to a 100-year-old human. She also has arthritis (and only 4 teeth, but that doesn't really matter in this situation). Initially, we hadn't really considered her for a surrogate, due to her age and mobility. But she had raised 9 babies of her own, and seemed the most interested in him during our observations.
So on Thursday morning, we left him in an exhibit and walked out for the last time. Within 20 seconds of being let in with him, Sandra was picking him up. We had really been encouraging Mahal to be much more independent than a baby orangutan normally would be at eight months. Not knowing how good a job the surrogate would do at carrying him, we had to make sure he was able to move around the exhibit on his own and get to us at the bars for bottles. As such, we never really held on to Mahal or restrained him. So when Sandra was grabbing him and not letting go, he did not like it. For the first couple hours, she held onto him and he cried and screamed. Sandra knows that a baby his age should be carried, so that's what she was trying todo. When she finally let him go, and he calmed down, she seemed to realize that he did better that way.
It's now been 3 days and they're still together. Sandra still occasionally grabs him to pick him up and he gets upset, but he's adjusting. He sleeps on her when he's sleeping, and he's doing a great job of drinking his bottles through the mesh.
Here's a couple of pictures of the 2 of them:
This one was taken during the first 2 hours, so Mahal isn't real happy, but it's cute!
This one was take today, when he was hanging out with her by his choice.
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