A ‘critically endangered’ Bornean orangutan baby has been born at Blackpool Zoo after first-time mother Jingga gave birth.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Zoo proudly announced, ‘We’re delighted to announce the birth of our first critically endangered Bornean orangutan for over 20 years!
Jingga, who is a first-time mum, gave birth in the early hours on the 14th of June to a healthy baby boy, fathered by Kawan, who joined us in 2022 as part of a recommendation by the International Studbook Keeper, who manages the European breeding programme. ‘
Darren Webster, Director at Blackpool Zoo, added: ‘The arrival of this very special baby is wonderful news, not just for us here at Blackpool Zoo, but for the species too. One of our resident females, Summer, was the last baby to be born here and we have been working hard to create a breeding group to help safeguard the future of this magnificent species.
Kawan’s arrival marked the beginning of a new start after our previous male, Ramon moved to a group in Germany that was more suited to him for breeding.
Ramon settled in well in his new family and has now become a father himself, so we are delighted that the move was a huge success for both collections. Kawan was selected to form a breeding group at Blackpool Zoo following extensive talks with experts from the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) and specialist keepers from the UK and beyond.
The Bornean orangutan was classified as critically endangered in July 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This means that this species now faces an “extremely high” risk of extinction in the wild. This makes breeding programmes such as the EEP absolutely vital and we are hoping that this is the start of a new generation of beautiful Bornean orangutans here at Blackpool Zoo.’
Blackpool Zoo’s Orangutan Outlook will be open from tomorrow (Saturday 1st July) to enable visitors to catch a glimpse of Jingga and the baby.
