Sumatran orangutan at Paira Daiza is expecting

A Sumatran orangutan at Paira Daiza animal park in Brugelette is pregnant, the park has announced. It’s good news, as the species is critically endangered.

Mother Sinta is 23 and has never yet given birth. The father is Gempa. Both animals arrived at Paira Daiza in 2016, she from Stuttgart and he from Prague.

Though it was hoped that the pair would eventually produce an offspring, “we had no idea that it would happen so quickly,” the park said in a statement. The Sumatrain orangutan has been in the top 25 of the most endangered species list since 2000. There are only about 14,000 left in the wild.

Paira Daiza, which became world famous two years ago when a baby giant panda – also endangered – was born there, is closed in the winter but re-opens this weekend.

Photo: Andreas Vandendriessche/Paira Daiza