Personal Information
The orangutans at our Zoo are named Kumang, Dara and Denda. Kumang is the mother of Dara. Kumang was born in England and came here in 1991. Her daughter, Dara, was born in 1999. Dara was a genetically significant birth because her father, Jiggs, was born in the wild. Denda is our male orangutan and came to the Zoo in 2011 from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in 2002. Click here to read about a new Bornean orangutan baby born on April 29!
Status in the Wild
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status: Endangered. Orangutans are the most endangered of all the apes. The Seneca Park Zoo is a participant in the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for the orangutan. The danger to orangutans is the habitat destruction of their forests caused by land conversion to plantations, logging and poaching.
Habitat
Canopy of lowland forests, swamp forests and in tropical rainforests, orangutans are found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra and in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Diet
Various fruits such as mangoes and durian, leaves, seeds, bark, eggs and insects. The diet of an orangutan is very diverse.