How a Zookeeper Helped an Orangutan Learn to Nurse Her Baby
Quick Answer: Zoe, an orangutan at Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, struggled to nurse her first baby after being orphaned when she was young. Before the birth of her second baby in December 2022, zookeepers spent months helping her learn maternal behaviors through demonstrations, videos and a stuffed orangutan. After Zoe gave birth, zookeeper Whitlee Turner demonstrated breastfeeding by nursing her own baby, Caleb, in front of Zoe. Less than 24 hours later, Zoe successfully nursed her newborn for the first time.
Introduction
Sometimes, helping an animal means finding a way to communicate through behavior rather than words.
That was the challenge faced by keepers at Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia when an orangutan named Zoe became a mother for the second time.
Zoe had struggled to care for her first baby, Taavi, in 2021. She did not nurse him properly or hold him close to her body, and zoo staff eventually had to hand-raise him. When Zoe became pregnant again, her keepers began preparing her months before the birth.
They used stuffed-animal demonstrations and videos of orangutan mothers caring for their babies. Then, after Zoe gave birth to her second son on December 12, 2022, the zoo tried something even more unusual: a zookeeper who was also a new mother breastfed her own baby in front of Zoe.
The result became one of the most unusual documented animal-care stories to emerge from a U.S. zoo.
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Who Is Zoe the Orangutan?
Zoe is an orangutan living at Metro Richmond Zoo in Moseley, Virginia. According to the zoo, she was orphaned when she was about nine months old after her own mother died unexpectedly.
That early loss became important when Zoe later became a mother herself. Zoo staff believed that her lack of experience around an adult orangutan mother may have contributed to her difficulty caring for her first baby.
It is important to be precise here: the zoo described this as a likely explanation rather than something that could be proven with certainty. The available reports do not establish that being orphaned was the sole reason Zoe struggled with motherhood.
Zoe Struggled With Her First Baby
In March 2021, Zoe gave birth to her first son, Taavi. The zoo reported that she did not show the expected maternal behaviors needed to safely care for him.
Instead of holding Taavi close to her body, Zoe held him away from herself and did not nurse him successfully. Keepers tried demonstrating how to hold and nurse a baby using a doll, but those attempts did not solve the problem.
Because Taavi needed reliable nutrition and care, zoo staff eventually took over his hand-rearing.
The experience showed the animal-care team that if Zoe became pregnant again, they would need to prepare her well before the next birth.
Keepers Spent Months Preparing Zoe
The solution was not simply a single demonstration.
During Zoe's second pregnancy, keepers used several approaches to expose her to behaviors associated with caring for an infant.
Jessica Gring, a lead zookeeper, demonstrated how an orangutan baby could cling to its mother's body by using a stuffed orangutan. She carried the toy around her neck and waist and demonstrated behaviors such as holding a baby while eating.
The zoo also set up a television inside Zoe's area so she could watch videos showing orangutan mothers giving birth and caring for their young.
These exercises were repeated over months, giving Zoe repeated opportunities to observe behaviors that she had apparently not experienced as a young orangutan.
Zoe Gave Birth to Her Second Baby
On December 12, 2022, Zoe gave birth to her second baby, a male orangutan.
This time, the keepers were watching closely to see whether the preparation had made a difference.
According to the zoo, Zoe began showing more appropriate behaviors with her newborn. She also allowed keepers to observe the baby's body and feet, mirroring some of the behavior that had previously been demonstrated using the stuffed animal.
But one critical challenge remained: Zoe had not yet successfully nursed her baby.
A Zookeeper Became Part of the Unusual Lesson
The zoo veterinarian contacted Whitlee Turner, a zookeeper who was also a new mother.
Turner had her own infant son, Caleb. The zoo asked whether she would breastfeed Caleb in front of Zoe so the orangutan could observe the process directly.
Turner agreed.
According to the zoo, she and Caleb went to Zoe's indoor area shortly after Zoe gave birth. Turner breastfed her son while deliberately making the demonstration easy for Zoe to observe.
She pointed between herself, Caleb and Zoe, and made sure Zoe could see the baby's positioning and latch.
ABC News reported that Turner conducted the demonstration in two sessions, rather than a single brief encounter. Zoe watched closely during the demonstrations but did not immediately nurse her own baby.
Less Than 24 Hours Later, Zoe Nursed Her Baby
The change came quickly.
The Metro Richmond Zoo reported that less than 24 hours after watching the breastfeeding demonstration, Zoe nursed her own baby for the first time. ABC News and The Washington Post independently reported the same sequence of events.
The timing is remarkable, but it should not be interpreted as proof that the human demonstration alone caused Zoe to learn how to nurse.
The zoo had already spent months preparing her with videos, stuffed-animal demonstrations and other forms of behavioral training. The live breastfeeding demonstration was one part of a much larger effort.
What can be documented is the sequence: Zoe received months of preparation, then observed Turner breastfeeding her son, and subsequently nursed her own newborn within 24 hours.
Why Did the Demonstration Make Sense?
Orangutans are highly capable of learning through observation. Their long developmental period also means that young orangutans spend years with their mothers learning behaviors and skills.
Smithsonian's National Zoo notes that orangutan infants have an exceptionally long period of dependence on their mothers. They learn what foods to eat, where to find them and how to navigate their environment through prolonged interaction with their mothers.
That makes maternal behavior especially important for a young orangutan's development.
In Zoe's case, however, she had lost her own mother at an early age. The zoo therefore attempted to provide her with alternative opportunities to observe maternal behaviors.
The goal was not to turn Zoe into a human-like mother. It was to give her opportunities to observe behaviors that were relevant to caring for her own infant.
Orangutan Mothers Normally Have a Long Relationship With Their Young
Orangutans have one of the longest periods of mother-infant dependence among land mammals.
Smithsonian's National Zoo reports that orangutan infants can nurse until around six or seven years old, although the timing of weaning varies. Female orangutans also typically have long intervals between births, meaning each infant represents a major investment of maternal care.
This long developmental period makes maternal care especially important.
Young orangutans do not simply receive food from their mothers. They gradually learn where food can be found, what foods are safe to eat and how to move through their environment.
In the wild, this knowledge is acquired over years of close association with the mother.
What Happened to Zoe's Baby?
When the zoo first announced the story in March 2023, Zoe's second baby was still unnamed publicly.
The Metro Richmond Zoo later updated its announcement and said the baby had officially been named Flynn.
The zoo reported that Zoe and her baby were healthy and bonding well. The Washington Post also reported that keepers observed the baby nursing successfully, gaining weight and reaching developmental milestones.
That outcome was particularly important because the purpose of the entire training effort was not simply to make Zoe perform a particular behavior. The goal was to help her care for her own baby safely.
What This Story Teaches Us About Animal Learning
Zoe's story offers an unusual example of how animal-care teams can use observation and repetition when working with animals that have not acquired important behaviors normally learned from their own species.
It also illustrates why animal behavior should not always be reduced to simple explanations.
The fact that Zoe successfully nursed her second baby after months of preparation and a live demonstration does not mean that keepers can simply teach every animal a complex behavior by showing it a human example.
Instead, the story demonstrates the importance of individual experience, learning, observation and repeated exposure.
It also shows how unusual circumstances can require animal-care professionals to develop creative approaches tailored to a particular animal.
Orangutans Are Critically Endangered
The story also highlights the conservation importance of orangutans.
Bornean orangutans are classified as Critically Endangered, with habitat loss and hunting among the major threats to the species.
Orangutans live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with the Tapanuli orangutan restricted to a small area of northern Sumatra. All three recognized orangutan species are under serious conservation pressure.
Their slow reproduction makes population recovery particularly difficult. Females normally have only one infant at a time and can go many years between births.
That means every successful birth and every healthy mother-infant relationship can be important within managed conservation populations.
Was the Viral Story True?
Yes — the core story is verified.
The Metro Richmond Zoo published its account on March 30, 2023, describing how Whitlee Turner breastfed her own son in front of Zoe after the orangutan had given birth to her second baby. The zoo reported that Zoe successfully nursed her own baby less than 24 hours later.
ABC News independently reported the same event and clarified that Turner demonstrated breastfeeding in two sessions. The Washington Post also reported that Zoe successfully nursed her newborn after observing Turner.
The main clarification is that the breastfeeding demonstration was not the only intervention. Zoo staff had spent months preparing Zoe through videos, stuffed-animal demonstrations and other behavioral work.
So the most accurate version of the story is not simply that “a zookeeper taught an orangutan to breastfeed.”
A more precise description is that zookeepers spent months preparing Zoe to care for her second baby, and a breastfeeding demonstration by a human zookeeper was one of the final interventions before Zoe successfully nursed her newborn.
Why Zoe's Story Matters
Zoe's story is memorable because it combines animal behavior, learning and human care in an unusual way.
But its deeper significance is the reminder that individual animals can have very different experiences. A behavior that normally develops through years of interaction with a mother may become difficult when an animal loses that opportunity early in life.
The response from the Metro Richmond Zoo was therefore not simply to remove the problem and raise another baby by hand. The team attempted to help Zoe acquire the behaviors she needed to raise her own offspring.
In the end, the intervention was successful enough for Zoe to nurse her baby and continue caring for him.
Conclusion
Zoe's journey from struggling with her first baby to successfully nursing her second shows how animal-care teams can use observation, repetition and creative behavioral training to help an individual animal overcome an unusual challenge.
The live breastfeeding demonstration by zookeeper Whitlee Turner became the most memorable part of the story, but it was only one piece of a much longer preparation process.
Less than 24 hours after watching Turner breastfeed her son, Zoe successfully nursed her own newborn.
Her story is a remarkable example of animal learning—and of the lengths keepers may go to help an animal become capable of caring for its own young.
Final Takeaway: Zoe did not simply learn from one demonstration. Her successful transition to motherhood followed months of preparation, observation and support from her keepers, with a human breastfeeding demonstration becoming one of the final steps in that process.
More From The Pader
- Animals & Humans: Remarkable Bonds & Encounters — Explore more remarkable stories involving animals and people.
- Amazing Animal Stories — Discover more documented stories about remarkable animals, unusual behavior, rescue, conservation and extraordinary encounters.
Sources and Further Reading
- Metro Richmond Zoo — “Orangutan Learns How to Nurse from a Breastfeeding Zookeeper” (March 30, 2023). Original source
- Metro Richmond Zoo — “Meet Taavi – Baby Orangutan Born March 2” (August 19, 2021). Original source
- ABC News — “Orangutan learns to breastfeed by watching zookeeper breastfeed her infant son” (March 31, 2023). Read the report
- The Washington Post — “How a new mom taught an orangutan to breastfeed her newborn” (April 1, 2023). Read the report
- Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute — Orangutan biology, development and reproduction. Read more
- Wikimedia Commons — Representative Bornean orangutan mother and baby photograph by Seneca Park Zoo keeper Brian Sheets, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image source and license
- Wikimedia Commons — Representative Bornean orangutan mother and baby photograph by Nngowen, CC BY-SA 4.0. Image source and license
Status: FACT-CHECKED
The central story was checked against the Metro Richmond Zoo's original March 2023 account and independently reported by ABC News and The Washington Post. The zoo confirms that Zoe struggled to nurse her first baby, that staff prepared her for her second birth through multiple behavioral demonstrations, that zookeeper Whitlee Turner breastfed her own son in front of Zoe in two sessions, and that Zoe nursed her own newborn less than 24 hours later.
The article does not claim that the live breastfeeding demonstration alone caused Zoe's successful nursing. The zoo's account makes clear that the demonstration was part of a broader preparation effort that included videos and repeated demonstrations with a stuffed orangutan.
The article also avoids treating the zoo's explanation that Zoe may not have learned maternal behaviors because she was orphaned as a proven biological cause. That explanation is attributed to the zoo and presented as a likely factor rather than an established certainty.
Representative Wikimedia Commons images used in the article are clearly identified as not Zoe or her baby. Their respective Creative Commons licenses and photographers are credited.
The Pader presents wildlife and science information using credible sources and accessible language. Scientific information may be updated as new research emerges.
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