Chester Zoo is celebrating the birth of this critically-endangered Bornean orangutan infant. Employees at Chester Zoo in Cheshire were surprised when mother Leia was confirmed to be pregnant after testing negative just months before. Orangutans are typically pregnant for 259 days which is eight and a half months. Zookeepers said the new arrival is “bright and alert” and suckling well from mum Leia, who is incredibly protective of her new baby. Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered in the wild. Threatened by illegal hunting, habitat destruction, and the loss of much of their forest home to palm oil plantations, the species has been pushed to the brink of existence. Recent estimates suggest as few as 55,000 Bornean orangutans live on the island of Borneo, the only place they can be found in the wild. With a huge population decline, the orangutans at Chester Zoo are part of a vital international breeding programme to help conserve the species. Primate zookeeper Chris Yarwood said: “The pregnancy tests we carried out on Leia in the months prior to the birth had actually returned negative results.
