Orangutan’s 50th birthday cause for celebration at Brookfield Zoo
In the wild, orangutans usually live only into their 30s. So when Maggie, the orangutan, turned 50, it was cause for celebration Monday at Brookfield Zoo.
Maggie and her partner, Brunei, who’s just 20, awoke to a sweet birthday treat — a whopping 50 pounds of carrot-and-sweet-potato cake, combining her favorite foods.
She also had presents — two forage piles that included oatmeal and cracked corn amid the piles of pine shavings. And zoo visitors joined in, singing “Happy Birthday.”
“It was a fun surprise,” said Anne Burnell, who was visiting with her son, Charlie, and his friend, Taylor Topczewski, both 8. “We just walked in and thought we’d wish her a happy birthday.”
At 50 — a milestone akin to a human making it to 100, according to senior animal keeper Amy Coons — Maggie is the second-oldest Bornean orangutan in North America and the fifth-oldest captive Bornean orangutan in the world..
“It’s a big deal for any ape in the zoo population,” Coons said of the birthday.
The longest-living Bornean orangutan in the world died a few months ago at 59. Coons said she’ss hopeful Maggie, who’s on medication for a hypothyroid condition, can surpass that.
