SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nangka, the endangered orangutan born at the Sacramento Zoo in May, now has a new home.
According to the Sacramento Zoo, Nangka (which means jackfruit in Indonesian) arrived at Zoo Atlanta Friday. He will live with the group of orangutans there and be cared for by Madu, a 40-year-old female orangutan, who has adopted and raised four orangutans in the last two decades.
Nangka was taken to Atlanta after months of around-the-clock care at the Sacramento Zoo due to his first-time mother, Indah, being unable to care for him properly. The zoo says Indah treated the infant more like a playmate than a child and as such didn't display the proper nursing and care skills.
"For orangutans, maternal skills are a behavior learned by observing and being part of a group — Indah simply has more to learn," wrote the zoo.
Although Madu at Zoo Atlanta has no biological children of her own, she has been shown to have a good track record at caring for infants whose mothers were unable to care for them.
