| WHAT: |
It’s
birthday cake for Woodland Park Zoo visitors and gift-wrapped
boxes of delectable fruits and treats for the zoo’s twin
orangutans, Towan (toe-WAHN) and Chinta (CHEEN-tuh). Brother and
sister, respectively, are celebrating their milestone 30th
birthday and everyone’s invited! Orangutans can live up to
59 years in zoos and 30 to 40 years in the wild. |
|
Upon
their birth at Woodland Park Zoo, the twins gained instant celebrity
status because they were the first-known twin orangutans born
in captivity. Pictures of the two in diapers appeared everywhere,
including LIFE magazine. While other twins have been born
since, twin orangutan births are still a rare occurrence. |
|
The
entire group of five orangutans will join in the celebration.
Media can photograph the endangered apes from the elevated boardwalk
of the outdoor Orangutan Forest. If it rains, the orangutans will
receive the birthday treats in the interior portion of the exhibit
that is behind glass. Heran (her-AWN), Towan’s son, turns
9 on the same day. |
|
|
| WHEN: |
Thursday,
February 19, 11:00 a.m. |
|
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| WHERE: |
The
zoo’s Orangutan Forest in the Trail of Vines. Enter the zoo
through the ARC near the West Gate at N. 55th St. &
Fremont Ave. N. Staff will escort you to the exhibit, or you may
go directly to the Orangutan Forest. Cake will be served at the
Orangutan Research Station near the orangutans’ interior
exhibit. |
|
|
| WHO: |
At
8-months-old, the twins were named through a naming contest co-sponsored
by The Seattle Times and KVI radio. The contest winner,
then 6-year-old Eric Sano (SAW-noh), will attend the birthday
party. Thirty years later, Sano is a detective sergeant with the
Seattle Police Department. As the winner, Sano won the privilege
to be keeper of the baby orangutans for a day, a $100 U.S. savings
bond, and two tickets to opening night of the Ice Capades. |
|
Mary
Keiter, one of a dozen volunteer "babysitter moms" who
administered 24-hour daily care to the twins, will also join the
celebration. Keiter became the zoo’s first veterinary technician
in 1977 and remains at the zoo as a volunteer keeper for gorillas. |
|
|
| OTHER: |
Towan
and Chinta, the first offspring of wild-caught parents 10-year-old
Molly and 12-year-old Elvis, were born at Woodland Park Zoo in
1968. While Molly curiously inspected her newborns, she didn’t
know what to do or how to feed them. Nineteen hours later, a team
of volunteer physicians was forced to tranquilize Molly and pull
the twins from her. |
|
The
pair spent their first several weeks in an incubator converted
from a snake cage. Because the zoo did not yet have its own veterinary
staff, physicians and nurses from the University Hospital Center
for premature infants and the University of Washington Regional
Primate Center pitched in to care for the infant apes. |
|
Towan
and Chinta were never reintroduced to their mother. They were
handraised by zoo staff and a team of volunteer "babysitter
moms" until they were about 5 years old. At birth, Towan
weighed 3 lbs., 4 oz.; and Chinta 1 lb., 14 oz. Today, Towan,
the largest of the zoo’s orangutans, weighs a hefty 280 lbs.
and Chinta 175 lbs. |
|
Other
members of the zoo’s orangutan group include: 26-year-old
Melati; 16-year-old Belawan, daughter of Towan and Melati; and
9-year-old Heran, son of Towan and Melati. |
|
Orangutans
belong to the family Pongidae, which includes all three
great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans. Distinct subspecies
of orangutans live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Their
habitat consists of lower and middle canopy levels of mature lowland
tropical rain forests; and lower densities in mountainous areas. |
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Orangutans
are an endangered species. Overpopulation, logging, agriculture
and other human activities are rapidly destroying forest environments
required by orangutans for survival. |
|
Woodland
Park Zoo is involved in orangutan research and conservation in
the wild. Zoo staff traveled throughout Indonesia doing tissue
sampling of wild and captive orangutans. This study confirmed
that the two orangutan subspecies are very different genetically,
and should be managed separately. Today, they are not allowed
to interbreed. |
|
While
the zoo’s resident orangutans are a hybrid subspecies and
are not allowed to reproduce, these animals play a critical role
in educating zoo professionals and the public about these intelligent
great apes. As an example, in 1993, the zoo performed the first-ever
in vitro fertilization on an orangutan, Chinta. Although
a pregnancy did not result, the procedure marked a medical breakthrough
in the continuing development of embryo transfer techniques. |
