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Young World
Dumadi finds a mom
R. KRITHIKA
Orphaned at birth, eight-month-old Dumadi has been well looked after but it’s not the same as his having some one of his own species care for him. Dumadi, a Sumatran orangutan, was born in Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo in Indiana last year but his mother died within an hour of giving birth. Zoo officials asked for help from other zoos and Zoo Atlanta, which has the largest number of great apes in the U.S., offered to find him a mother among their orangutans. Finall
y their choice zeroed in on Madu (25) who’s had other adoptive babies. Both Dumadi and Madu will go on display after the infant settles down in his new home. Zoo officials in Fort Wayne told news agency AP, “We know this is
the best possible situation for Dumadi. We want him to be raised by orangutans, not by humans.” Sumatran orangutans are highly endangered with only 8,000 left in the rainforests of Indonesia. Environmentalists point out that the species could soon be extinct given the rate of destruction of the rainforests.
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