The world’s oldest living orangutan in captivity celebrated her 63rd birthday this week, the Guinness World Records has announced.
Estimated to have been born in 1961, Bella, a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is one of the three species of critically endangered orangutans. She was collected from the wild in 1964 and has lived at Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany, ever since.
For her birthday this week, Zoo staff said she was given a birthday cake made of soft-boiled rice and various fruits.
Bella became the oldest living orangutan in 2021, following the death of Inji, a female of similar breed at Oregon Zoo, USA.
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“Bella has been described by her zookeepers as honest, prudent, curious, intelligent, loving and never aggressive. Over the course of her life, she’s given birth to six children of her own and raised four adopted children who were not accepted by their mothers, earning her the nickname “supermom,” the Guinness World Records said.
Bella shares the spot of the world’s oldest ape with Fatou, a western lowland gorilla resident at Zoo Berlin in Germany since May 1959.
Fatou recently celebrated his 67th birthday, last week.