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Baby Orang-utan makes zoo debut

A rare Sumatran orang-utan born in Melbourne Zoo last month has made her first public appearance with her mum, Miamunah.

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By staff, agencies

Source: SBS


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A rare Sumatran orang-utan born in Melbourne Zoo last month has made her first public appearance with her mum, Miamunah.

The baby girl was named Dewi, which means Goddess or Princess in Indonesian, after members of the community voted on her monkey moniker.

Dewi is the second orang-utan to be born in the zoo.

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Zoo director Kevin Tanner welcomed the birth, and said it drew attention to the plight of the critically-endangered primates.

"We [the zoo] would like to put this birth into a larger perspective: about 50 individuals of this endangered species die every week in South-east Asia due to the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations," he said in a written statement posted on the zoo's website.

"We hope the community will support our campaign calling for change to food labeling laws, so that when manufacturers use palm oil that will be shown on the label.

"It's encouraging to know that our supermarket choices can make a difference to orang-utan survival in the wild," Mr Tanner says.


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