Meet Madu

Madu is an amazing individual who has served an important role in the AZA orangutan population by having served as a foster mother. She has no biological offspring of her own, but she is currently raising her fifth foster youngster, Nangka. She is trained to bring him over to a steel mesh wall so the Orangutan Care Team can give Nangka a bottle several times a day. When Nangka was small, she even had to carry Nangka to care team members so that they could give him a bottle in the middle of the night. She is a true supermom! She is patiently teaching Nangka everything he needs to learn to be an orangutan. He watches her closely and then mimics her, learning such skills as making a nest, identifying preferred foods, climbing and swinging, and even interacting with enrichment items.

Madu is very smart and quickly learns new behaviors. She helps us take better care of her by participating in her own health care. She voluntarily participates in blood draws, injections (she gets an annual flu shot), blood pressure readings, and echocardiograms. She also enjoys learning a variety of other behaviors so that we can make sure she stays healthy. She opens her mouth so we can see her teeth and presents all her body parts so we can monitor her. She seems to enjoy learning new things and always appears excited when it is time for a training session.

She also participates in cognitive research using a touch screen computer. She shows us how she learns by categorizing objects, ranking them from smallest to largest, or memorizing pictures. Every time she gets a correct answer, she gets a treat. Madu seems to enjoy working on the computer and makes happy vocalizations when her care team mounts the computer on the steel mesh wall for her.

Madu also likes to be comfortable and makes elaborate nests every night. She is an expert at using everything available to sculpt her nests. She seems to prefer using fabric pieces, wood wool, hay, leafy branches, and enrichment items to make sure she has a comfortable nest for her and Nangka to sleep in every night.