Animal magnetism breeds delight at zoo
Romance can be clinical for zoo animals, with keepers deciding who gets paired up. Sometimes though, couples bond unexpectedly, as Melanie Earley reports.
Charlie and Melur have been a couple for more than 15 years, living together and raising children. Their relationship has lasted longer than the average Kiwi marriage – and they’re both orangutans.
Charlie and Melur, a bonded pair of apes, are considered one of Auckland Zoo’s longest-lasting couples. Normally, deputy curator of primates Amy Robbins says, orangutans are semi-solitary and don’t raise offspring together – but Charlie and Melur are breaking down those stereotypes.
‘‘Normally, the males will mate with the females and move on.’’
However, Charlie and Melur did not adhere to this rule, and the tightly-bonded pair are living together with their second child, 6-month-old Bahmi: ‘‘Charlie is a very gentle male orangutan. Normally they would have nothing to do with their offspring and could be quite aggressive, but they’re able to be together in one enclosure.’’
The orangutan lovebirds were paired up by the zoo’s species coordinators. Robbins says all breeding at the zoo is done in a ‘‘scientifically robust’’ way and taken very seriously by staff. ‘‘We can’t anthropomorphise these animals too much as we don’t know if they’re capable of love, but we do have closely bonded pairs here. Animals have an instinct to breed and reproduce.’’
Pairing inside the zoo can be quite different from in the wild, Robbins says, because breeding pairs are picked by species coordinators based on compatibility. Computer systems help determine which animals will get the best breeding – and for the most part, it’s successful.
‘‘We’re lucky to have quite a few babies at the moment but we are never just breeding animals so we can have cute babies at the zoo,’’ Robbins says.
Another bonded pair Robbins remembers fondly was two otters who have both since died. ‘‘They were the closest pair I’d ever seen . . . just so in tune with one another and just spent their time enjoying each other’s company.’’
Robbins says some animals at the zoo live in monogamous pairs, while others live in larger family units. ‘‘A lot of research around the relationships animals form are changing – for example we always thought siamang gibbons were monogamous, but new research suggests they may be more flexible with this.’’
However, the zoo’s two siamang gibbons, Intan and Kera, have been a bonded pair for nearly 10 years. In 2017 they made a leap for freedom, escaping to an area outside their enclosure until they were lured back with their favourite foods including banana and grapes. They have no offspring as Kera has permanent contraception due to her life being at risk if she were to give birth.
‘‘We only have the two siamang,’’ Robbins says. ‘‘Sometimes zoo visitors ask us why we don’t have more, but two is a natural grouping for them, and they’re very territorial.’’
Other animals including cotton-top tamarins (small South American monkeys) live in monogamous family groups with one alpha breeding pair: ‘‘The others in the family become reproductively suppressed so only these two can reproduce to stop in-breeding within the family.’’
Robbins says it’s important for the zoo to ensure social animals aren’t on their own for long, and animals living in groups have enough space for some alone time.
There are more than 1400 animals representing 135 species
‘We’re lucky to have quite a few babies at the moment but we are never just breeding animals so we can have cute babies at the zoo.’ AMY ROBBINS, AUCKLAND ZOO’S DEPUTY CURATOR OF PRIMATES
at Auckland Zoo. When Sunday News requested data on births and deaths, the zoo said 3508 animals had died during the past three years. It later clarified that most of those were insects, including 655 we¯ tā punga. A subsequent request for information on the zoo’s mammals revealed 53 had been born over three years, and 46 had died.
The new arrivals included porcupines, known as porcupettes, otters, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, zebras, baboons, an orangutan, nyalas, a red panda, a wallaby and a white rhino.
All but three of the mammal deaths were due to euthanasia, an Auckland Zoo spokesperson says, adding it’s ‘‘unusual’’ for an animal to die naturally in its habitat: ‘‘Our keepers usually identify health issues long before they become terminal. When an animal’s health issues are impacting its welfare negatively and there’s no hope . . . it’s standard practise to euthanise them to prevent unnecessary suffering.’’
But it isn’t always issues with physical health that lead to euthanasia. The spokesperson says it’s not uncommon for an animal to become ostracised from its social group in the wild, which can lead to injury or death.
If that happens at the zoo, staff try to rehome or integrate the animal into another group. If that’s not possible then sometimes euthanasia is the ‘‘kindest outcome’’.
One of the recent deaths by euthanasia at the zoo was Inkosi, a 20-year-old male white rhino.
In late March, Inkosi stopped eating and became ‘‘extremely’’ lethargic.
The vet team carried out a full examination under general anaesthetic and results indicated Inkosi had signs of kidney failure.
Treatment failed to improve Inkosi’s condition and tests showed he was continuing to deteriorate, so staff made the decision to euthanise him.
The specialist team who care for the rhino herd at the zoo said Inkosi was ‘‘very gentle and friendly, loved a mud wallow, especially in the rain, [and] always enjoyed a good scratch’’.
‘‘Inkosi is a big loss to the zoo and to the rhino programme, and he’ll be greatly missed.’’
A zoo spokesperson says unlike their wild counterparts, zoo animals are not subject to starvation, dehydration, predation or untreated disease and often live much longer as a consequence: ‘‘This brings its own challenges with geriatric health issues that you might rarely see in the wild, and the ability of vets and keepers to identify these early is essential.’’
Other deaths during the past three years included two elderly lions named Zulu and Malik, otters, spider monkeys, an orangutan, capybaras, zebras, including a 3-month-old foal with congenital conditions, kunekune pigs and little red flying foxes.
A 16-year-old fur seal named Kaiako, a red panda, wallabies, meerkats, Sumatran tiger Berani and some Tasmanian devils also died during that time period.
Wanita, the 42-year-old Bornean orangutan, was one of three mammals who didn’t die by euthanasia. She died in March after keepers found her unresponsive in an access tunnel.
They performed CPR until vets arrived, but Wanita couldn’t be revived. An autopsy showed she had died from a heart attack – her old age and a chronic respiratory issue she’d had for years were also contributing factors.
The two other animals that died from natural causes rather than euthanasia were both rednecked wallabies. The first died in June 2020, and a post-mortem examination revealed a rapidonset severe infection called mandibular, which spread to the lungs and soft tissue.
Two months later another wallaby died from chronic toxoplasmosis, which the zoo says is present in the wallaby habitat because of it being shed by domestic cats.
What happens to the zoo animals after death isn’t widely known, but there’s no chance of them being shot and dissected in front of crowds like the infamous case of Marius the giraffe, who met a grisly public end at Copenhagen Zoo in 2014.
Animals at Auckland Zoo are either buried or cremated. Most buried animals are interred at an undisclosed location off-site, while a few, including the elderly elephant Kashin who died in 2009, and hippos Faith and Fudge, were buried in private areas at the zoo.
Having to say goodbye to animals at the zoo, whether it’s because they’re being transferred internationally or reaching the end of their lives, is ‘‘very, very hard’’, Robbins says.
‘‘It is a hard thing to deal with, but you can’t be selfish because you know it is what’s best for the animal, but we do form bonds working with them for so many years.’’
Deaths can also be hard on the other animals. When Wanita – the closest friend of loved-up orangutan couple Charlie and Melur – died it brought an end to the ‘‘happy trio’’ the three apes enjoyed for many years.
‘‘It was an interesting relationship,’’ Robbins says.
‘‘Charlie and Wanita never wanted to mate but they got on well with each other platonically, while Wanita and Melur also got on well. This was unusual as normally female orangutans don’t get on well with each other, but they were a happy trio.’’
Shortly after Wanita’s death Melur gave birth to baby Bahmi, bringing the orangutan numbers at the zoo back up to three. And so continues the circle of life.