Voluntary Supplement Training With Sumatran Orangutan Sekali And Her Baby

Being prepared for any situation provides the best chance for success. This is why keepers have been working with Sekali to voluntarily participate in sessions where they practice bottle feeding her baby in case a situation emerges where the keepers need to assist Sekali with supplementation. 🦧

Our Wildlife Care team started working with Sekali while she was pregnant to present her ‘baby’ (the orange plastic toy seen below) and allow the team to supplement feed the baby should it be required after she gave birth. Since Sekali continues to nurse well, the team decided to shift their focus to working with her to administer Vitamin D drops to her baby by replacing the baby bottle in their sessions with a dropper. She initially was only presenting the baby’s head versus his mouth, but eventually, they were able to successfully administer the drops to his mouth!

The team will also continue to work with Sekali and the baby bottle (as you saw in the first video clip), allowing them to feed him if they need to. This is to ensure that they can assist in supplemental feeding in case she stops producing enough milk or she isn’t feeling well. It also allows Keepers to administer oral medication or rehydrate him should he ever become sick. Being prepared and having Sekali cooperate with these procedures ensure that the baby can remain with her and is less stressful if issues do arise in the future! 🦧 #TrainingTuesday #CooperativeCare

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