Melati — the oldest orangutan at Washington zoo — dies two weeks before 50th birthday
The oldest orangutan at a Washington zoo died just weeks before her 50th birthday after surgery, zoo officials said.
Melati would have turned 50 years old on Dec. 27, but she died at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle on Dec. 14, according to the zoo.
The zoo has been her home since 1974.
Since 2018, she has been treated for uterine fibroids. Then, over the summer, doctors found “significant” changes to her uterus and ovaries.
After trying to remove potentially cancerous growths from her uterus and left ovary to “alleviate pain and discomfort,” Melati died while recovering from the operation.
The “laid-back” and “inquisitive” primate had a 32-year-old son, Heran, and a 40-year-old daughter named Belawan. Both also live at the zoo.
She loved to look inside guests’ purses or bags near her exhibit window, the zoo’s mammal curator, Martin Ramirez, said in a news release.
And she loved to scrub her floors with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge.
“Losing our animals is very difficult, they are family to us,” Ramirez said. “Melati lived at Woodland Park Zoo for nearly five decades and was a role model mother to her two offspring who continue to thrive here.”
Orangutans typically have a median life expectancy of 28 years old, the release says, but some animals can now reach their 40s or 50s in zoos because of “evolving” zoo medicine.
They are considered “critically endangered” by the World Wildlife Fund, meaning orangutans face “an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Melati — the oldest orangutan at Washington zoo — dies two weeks before 50th birthday."
