A zoo in western Japan aims to breed endangered orang utans by pairing a male at the zoo with a female from an Indonesian zoo under a rare wildlife conservation agreement, Kyodo News reported.
Hayato, a 15-year-old male Bornean orang utan at Tobe Zoological Park of Ehime Prefecture, has reached breeding age, but the zoo has struggled to find him a partner as the species is limited in Japan and listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
A turning point came in 2018, when Taman Safari Indonesia proposed launching a joint orang utan conservation project with the prefecture-run zoo, a facility that had previously succeeded in breeding Sumatran orang utans.
Ehime Prefecture and Indonesia signed a wildlife conservation agreement in 2024, followed by a breeding loan agreement between the two zoos in April 2025.
Tobe Zoo welcomed a female Bornean orang utan named Jennifer in December 2025, bringing the total number of orang utans at the zoo to three, including a Sumatran orang utan.
The 15-year-old female has been on public display since March and is already drawing many visitors. Borneo orang utans enter breeding age between 12 and 15.
“She is smart, gentle, and loves to eat, especially oranges from Ehime Prefecture,” said her keeper, Eriko Inoue.
“We hope this matchmaking is successful,” she said, adding that she hopes visitors will learn about the situation facing wild orang utans through Jennifer. — Bernama
