Even Orangutans need lactation consultants.

April 2, 2023 8:50 AM

An orangutan orphaned as a child had no idea how to care for her first child. For the second, a zookeeper with her own human newborn showed the orangutan mother how to breastfeed. Zoe, a 14-year-old orangutan, grew up with the orangutan equivalent of a high ACEs score. Having never experienced a healthy childhood of her own, or witnessed another orangutan mother, she had no idea how to care for her first baby. The next time she got pregnant, zookeeper Whitlee Turner gave Zoe live breastfeeding demonstrations.

What I find fascinating is that this really challenges the idea that breastfeeding -- or any aspect of parenting -- is an innate, 'natural' skill that mothers are just born with. The whole "your body will know what to do" argument that makes many new human mothers feel like a failure. Even orangutans need grandmothers and aunties to show them how to care for and love their children! Right down to knowing how to carry a baby properly.

(Gift link from The Washington Post)

posted by EllaEm (14 comments total)

That's really sad and precious all at the same time.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:27 AM on April 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

Coincidentally, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust just recently had to deal with a similar problem on a much larger scale.
posted by thomas j wise at 12:06 PM on April 2, 2023 [16 favorites]

I hate that we have squeezed such a beautiful and intelligent species to the brink of destruction, but its amazing to see the people that take care of these animals going to extra miles to help them adapt to their unnatural environments. baby orangs are pretty much the cutest thing ever!!
posted by supermedusa at 12:13 PM on April 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

My friend Jeanne Legault had a psychology professor who brought a chimpanzee to class. First he stared the chimpanzee in the eyes and it totally pitched jumping up and down arms flailing, tooth baring screaming fit. Her professor then dropped his eyes, extended his arm and smacked his lips.

The chimpanzee instantly ran over and started picking at his arm hairs with its fingers and looking for ticks and fleas -- grooming him in other words. That story has always stuck in my mind.

One time when I visited the Seattle Animal Prison, er, Woodland Park Zoo -- decades ago as I always left deeply depressed by the behavior of its human visitors -- there was an orangutan lolling in an outside cage looking like nothing so much as a gigantic hairy empty bowling ball bag. I lowered my eyes and smacked my lips. And instantly it extended a four foot arm at me through the bars. Nonplussed by this, I did not attempt to groom it. A wise move when I realized later that I could have lost that arm had I irked it as I was then unaware of its phenomenal orangutan strength.
posted by y2karl at 3:55 PM on April 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

....My usual attempts to get around the paywall aren't working, what's the archive link trick again?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:19 PM on April 2, 2023

Type Wayback Machine in Google and post https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/01/new-mom-breastfeed-orangutan-richmond-zoo/ in the search window resulting there. The link used in this post is abbreviated and gets zero results there.
posted by y2karl at 4:37 PM on April 2, 2023

Here’s a gift link: https://wapo.st/430DFXN
posted by adamsc at 4:46 PM on April 2, 2023

This was the subject of much bemusement on a recent episode of Boonta Vista.

IT’S PLAPRIL MUTHERFUCKERS
posted by slogger at 4:50 PM on April 2, 2023

I love this story. Such a great reminder that a lot of the animal behavior we vaguely attribute to instinct is learned.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:05 PM on April 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

I feel like there's also something insightful to be said about the importance of community here.
posted by aniola at 6:54 PM on April 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the full link wasn't working for me either, I kept getting weird "access denied" messages.

Thanks for the gift link!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:28 PM on April 2, 2023

I saw film about Orangutans, it said that the young stay with their mothers for 9 years or so, to learn the forest and how to feed, be safe and etc. With so many orphaned Orangutans it takes a lot to rewild them, the body of knowledge is immense.
posted by Oyéah at 9:48 PM on April 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

EC, this site will let you skip the paywall too.

This is a really sweet story, I’m glad it worked out for Zoe.
posted by ellieBOA at 3:42 AM on April 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

Amazing. Bittersweet. Thanks.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:46 AM on April 3, 2023 [2 favorites]