New Orangutan Baby Expected At Zoo

The El Paso Zoo’s Sumatran orangutans, Ibu and Butch, are expecting their first baby this spring. This will be the first offspring for both 23-year-old Ibu and 29-year-old Butch. Ibu is one of only 12 female orangutans included in the current breeding recommendation of the Association of Zoo and Aquariums’s Species Survival Plan. Butch came to El Paso Zoo to breed with Ibu in March of 2011, as part of a breeding recommendation AZA. The pair have bonded well over the last three years and it was evident that someday they’d be pregnant.