Sumatran orangutan Lana is expected to give birth in the next couple of weeks at the Greenville Zoo!
With Lana, the Greenville Zoo’s female Sumatran orangutan, expected to give birth in the next few weeks, members of the zoo’s animal care and medical staff have developed a comprehensive birth management plan to address all aspects and potential risks associated with the pregnancy. As part of the 27-page plan, local medical professionals, local businesses and zoo veterinarians around the country have been consulted and offered their services to ensure that everything possible is being done for both Lana and the expected baby.
Lana, who is 33, had never been given an opportunity to reproduce before being transferred to the Greenville Zoo in 2016. She suffered a miscarriage in July 2017, approximately three months into her first pregnancy. Since confirming her second pregnancy in December, the zoo staff has monitored her condition closely and taken every precaution to help ensure her health and prepare for any complications she might experience while pregnant or during labor.
Lana was born on January 26, 1985, at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. She was transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1990 and then to the Greenville Zoo on September 27, 2016, as part of a breeding recommendation by the Orangutan Species Survival Program (SSP). Kumar was born on April 15, 2005, at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, TX. He was transferred to the Oregon Zoo in 2014 and then to the Greenville Zoo on November 4, 2016, as part of the Orangutan SSP recommendation to breed with Lana.
The last orangutan born at the Greenville Zoo was Bob, a male Bornean orangutan born to parents Mia and Chelsea in 2006. All three have since been transferred to other zoos.