Ape breastfeeding 101: How a zookeeper helped an orangutan tap into her motherly instincts
We’ve all heard or used the expression that parenting “doesn’t come with a manual” when discussing the difficulties of parenthood.
When humans have questions about raising a child, they typically turn to family members and friends for advice, or they look for wisdom via parenting classes, books, groups and/or internet forums.
But what happens when an orangutan in captivity needs some pointers on parenting?
A zoo in Virginia recently found an answer to that question.
When an orangutan named Zoe at Metro Richmond Zoo wouldn’t breastfeed her baby, a zookeeper — who was also a new mom — showed her what to do.
"I mean I was immediately, like, honored. I was like, of course, how can I say no to this?" Zookeeper Whitlee Turner said of being asked to show Zoe the orangutan how to nurse her baby.
Watch the video above to see how Turner taught Zoe how to breastfeed.
To show the orangutan how to breastfeed, Turner sat down in front of Zoe's enclosure on a blanket — with her then-4-month-old son, Caleb, in her arms. Turner then took off her top.
"Orangutans don't wear shirts,” she explained.
Sitting face to face with the orangutan, Turner proceeded to show Zoe the basics of nursing a baby by "pointing at her breast, pointing at mine and pointing at her baby like where you need to put him."
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Zoe had another baby two years ago.
"She was holding the baby like a can of soda. Occasionally she'd put it up like a telephone,” Jim Adelin, Metro Richmond Zoo’s director, said of Zoe's first child.
Noticing Zoe struggling with parenting, Adelin took the first baby orangutan in and hand-raised it for eight months.
"I had to move out of our bedroom into another bedroom in the house because I slept with that orangutan on top of me. I even took him to church,” Adelin said.
When Zoe got pregnant again, the zoo tried using a TV monitor to show her videos of other orangutans caring for babies. Zookeepers also tried other tactics using stuffed animals.
Turner’s tactic of breastfeeding her own son right before Zoe’s eyes seems to be the lesson the primate need.
"And she was very engaged the whole time, like just watching me, like kept just peeking over and watching Caleb and watching me,” Turner said. “It was really cool."
Within 24 hours, Zoe was breastfeeding her own baby for the first time and was tapping into some of her other maternal instincts.
