Chimpanzee Information: Baby Orangutan, Kalijon Has a New Orangutan Mother

Friday, October 2, 2009

Baby Orangutan, Kalijon Has a New Orangutan Mother

By Julie Neemeyer

Kansas City, MO - Kalijon, a wide-eyed baby orangutan with crazy red hair standing straight atop her head, was born on April 24 and hand-raised by humans for five months. Recently introduced to Jill, a 33 year old orangutan has warmly taken Kalijon as one of her own, holding her close to her chest, presenting her to Zoo keepers for feedings and being very attentive. Jill will be nurturing Kalijon on exhibit starting this weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, Jill and Kalijon will be exhibit in the orangutan sun room for public viewing from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Then, the loving pair will be off exhibit during the week to get to know, Josie, Jill’s 7-year old daughter. If all goes as planned, the three-some will be back in the sun room doing as orangutans do again for the weekend, October 10 and 11 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Raising primates is a delicate, 24/7 process; Zoo keepers and other trained staff wore fur covered vests that Kalijon gripped as though it was her mother. She was fed formula every four hours or so, groomed and exercised daily. A carefully planned process kept her in close proximity with other orangutans to ignite the smells and sights of her soon to be family. As Kalijon grew, so did her curiosity; she was shown to Jill and the other orangutans; she shared enrichment items, and slowly, a relationship began. Jill’s motherly instincts gave way and her and Kalijon bonded.

These bonds between orangutans are extremely important because much of their behavior is learned by watching, experiencing and examining. Jill will demonstrate her mom-skills to her older daughter Josie to prepare her for her own baby someday.

Orangutans are the only Asian representative of the great apes. Although their range once extended throughout Southeast Asia, it is now found only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The Kansas City Zoo’s Borneon Orangutans are a part of the Species Survival Program (SSP). The SSP's goal is to achieve self-sustaining populations of orangutans that can continue to serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts and their habitat, as well as a resource for conservation education and research.

Kansas City Zoo is open daily from 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Regular Daily Admission is $10.50 for adults, $9.50 for seniors and $7.00 for children ages 3-11.
And, as always, Friends of the Zoo (FOTZ) members are free.
FOTZ Memberships are on sale; family memberships are only $75.
Call (816) 513-5800, or visit our web site www.kansascityzoo.org for more information.

To view Kansas City Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-3227-The_Kansas_City_Zoo

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January's Article

From the Fall of 2008 Through 2009 – The Chimpanzee Year in Review

This past year has been one of sadness, sorrow, change, and hope. I would like to take this opportunity, as we begin 2010, to reflect back and highlight the changes that we now, hopefully, are really beginning to see as the world’s attitude towards privately owned chimpanzees, and primates in general, change in a positive way.

The highlights begin, actually, late in the fall of 2008 when our chimps, Mikey and Louie, the two busiest and most popular working chimpanzees in America, retired to Little Rock Zoo. I wanted them to have a future as part of a family of chimps, and to have a safe and permanent home that they could live their life as chimpanzees, not a member of the human society.

In November of 2009, Connor and Kramer the chimpanzees owned by private pet owner Jeanne Rizzotto escape from her home near Red Lodge, Montana. They spent over an hour running loose, crossing highways and entering neighbor’s property. Connor, a habitual biter as described in court papers filed after the incident, bites a woman on the arm as she tries to keep him out of her home, losing 6-8 inches of skin from her arm. Rizzotto is told to keep the chimps in quarantine at her home while health officials investigate the incident. Rizzotto claims the chimps were let out by a vandal that had cut a lock, however that remains unproven. All of these articles have been posted on this Simian Library.

In February, 2009, tragedy strikes, and the world’s attention turns to the issue of private ownership of chimpanzees. On a cold afternoon in Stamford Connecticut, Travis the Chimpanzee attacks a long time friend of owner Sandra Herold named Charla Nash in Herold’s driveway. Travis is shot and killed by a patrol officer as the 14 year old, 200 pound male chimpanzee; tries to pry open the door of his patrol car as he responded to the tragedy. Nash is rushed to the hospital, and remains in a coma for months.

Weeks later, in early March, the US House of Representatives passes the Captive Primate Safety Act, banning sales of all primates across state lines. The bill moves on to the senate, where it still sits, not being acted on, to this day.

In late November, 2008, neighbors turned in a couple in Houston, Texas for a chimpanzee living in a garage in a suburban neighborhood. Fred Henry, now known simply as Henry, was over fifteen years old and had been living in the garage in a cage for 15 years. Weighing only 65 pounds, about 100 pounds underweight, the emaciated chimp is taken to the local SPCA where veterinarians and animal officials nurse him back to health. On Feb 23, 2009, Henry is moved to Chimp Haven in Shreveport, LA to live out the rest of his life with other chimps in a safe and enriching environment.

Later in March, a chimpanzee named Timmy escapes from his owners’ home in rural Missouri. The owner, Mary Overton, was a former director of The Simian Society of America, a group that promotes and encourages private primate ownership. Timmy is shot and killed by a police officer as he attempts to pry open the door to the officer’s patrol car. Investigators charge all residents of the home with animal cruelty, as they find a “puppy mill” on the premises, with dead dog carcasses scattered throughout the property and over a hundred sick and undernourished animals, including several monkeys.

On March 4, 2009 Nightline on ABC airs over fifteen minutes of footage taken by a HSUS undercover worker at the University Of Louisiana Lafayette National Primate Research Center. The video shows acts of cruelty and inhumane treatment of chimpanzees, including scores of baby chimpanzees in a holding cell with no enrichment or even a blanket. The video brings new awareness to the plight of research chimpanzees, and turns up the pressure on the labs. A follow up investigation by the USDA, following the issuance of a 108 page complaint by the HSUS against the lab, reinforces the findings of the video taken.

Carole Noon, founder and director of Save the Chimps in New Mexico and Fort Pierce Florida passes away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 59. Noon, perhaps the world’s most famous chimpanzee advocate, founded Save the Chimps in 1997. She led the purchase of the former troubled Coulston Foundation research facility near Almagordo, New Mexico in order to rescue over 250 chimpanzees that had been used by the government for research, mostly from the space program in the 60’s and 70’s. The chimpanzees in her care, now numbering over 270, were being moved from New Mexico to the Florida facility, hailed as the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world. Noon left a legacy of care, compassion, and love for the species that will never be duplicated. The chimpanzee community misses her dearly.

In June, a news story from a Tampa Florida television station airs a story about a baby chimpanzee now residing at Big Cat Habitat in Sarasota, Florida, home of the Rosaire family of circus trainers. The chimpanzee, named Eli, was supposedly rejected at birth by his mother and is being raised by Kay Rosaire and Gini Valbuena. Valbuena, a long time buyer of baby chimpanzees that once described herself as being “addicted to chimpanzees”, is advertised in the news story as the chimps’ “full time nanny”.

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The Rosaire’s had a coming out baby shower for the chimp in June, asking the public to donate toys and diapers, as well as pay the price of admission.

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In early September, Gini and the baby chimp are spotted at a winery in Florida, drinking mimosas and schmoozing with the public.

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Later in September, “chimpanzee encounters” with the baby chimpanzee and Gini Valbuena, are being advertised on a play for fee basis on the Big Cat Habitat home page. The addiction continues.

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On December 10, 2009 Tom, a 44 year old chimpanzee that lived the last 14 years at the wonderful Fauna Foundation in Canada, passed away. Tom had been a research chimpanzee for the first thirty years of his life, languishing in a five foot by five foot by seven foot high stainless steel cage. He was the victim of countless laboratory tests, biopsies, injections, and suffering. Tom was the face of Project R&R, aimed at releasing all chimpanzees from biomedical and invasive research, and the driving force behind the Great Ape Protection Act now before Congress. There are still 1400 chimpanzees used in biomedical research in the United States today.

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On December 17^th, 2009, ten more chimpanzees arrived in Fort Pierce Florida as part of the Great Chimp Migration continues. Save the Chimps, the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world, transfers ten chimps at a time to the islands in the Florida facility as funds allow. An anonymous donor gave the $25,000 for this trip, and the Arcus Foundation has agreed to match all funds donated to Save the Chimps up until April of 2010. Start your year right – and donate to the Great Chimp Migration today!

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Friday, October 2, 2009

Baby Orangutan, Kalijon Has a New Orangutan Mother

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