A group of 30 breastfeeding mothers volunteered to help encourage an orangutan in Dublin Zoo to bond with her newborn.
The zoo said orangutan Mujur gave birth to a healthy male baby around two weeks ago. However, Mujur was having trouble bonding with her baby.
Mujur had previously given birth to two infants in 2019 and 2022 but she "did not exhibit the necessary maternal qualities" and both infants passed away not long after birth.
Young orangutans are fully dependent on their mother for food and transportation for the first three years of their life.
Ahead of this latest birth, Dublin Zoo began a lactation-learning process, "putting the call out for volunteers from lactation groups in Dublin and surrounding areas" to help out.
"A wonderful group of 30 women have generously given their time over the past few months, taking it in turns to breastfeed their infants in front of the pregnant Mujur," said the zoo.
Dublin Zoo said the process had "some success" and said the great ape was "extremely interested" in watching the women with their babies and would mirror some of their actions.
It also said Mujur was shown videos of other orangutans breastfeeding.
However, Dublin Zoo said ultimately the exercise was not successful in getting Mujur to feed her infant.
The zoo said it then had to make the "difficult decision" to separate the infant from Mujur and are now bottle-feeding him.
The baby's father Sibu died in February and had been at the zoo for four decades.
The zoo said it made the decision to intervene as Sibu's genetic profile is "considered to be extremely important for the Orangutan European breeding programme".
The newborn is being looked after by the animal care team at the Dublin Zoo.
He will stay at the zoo for a few weeks until he is brought to a specialist institution in the UK that has experience in raising young orangutans.
Dublin Zoo said the "whole team has already fallen hopelessly in love with him" and "it will be difficult to say goodbye".
However, it added the team is "confident that he is being sent to the best possible place for him to continue to develop and thrive".
