CELEBRATING PUPPE THE SUMATRAN ORANGUTAN’S
54^TH BIRTHDAY AT YOUR TORONTO ZOO

TORONTO, ON, Thursday, September 23, 2021: Today we celebrated Puppe’s 54^th Birthday. Puppe has been at your Toronto Zoo since September 1974 and is the oldest Sumatran orangutan in North America. On this milestone birthday you can honour Puppe with a donation to the Toronto Zoo’s Wildlife Conservancy to purchase and install a Pushbutton Water Spray Feature in the new outdoor orangutan habitat.

Construction of the new habitat continues and we can’t wait to share it with you. This new home for Puppe and the other five orangutans in our care will stimulate our orangutans physical, social and intellectual needs, and enrich their daily lives. When designing the new habitat one of the key components was to provide our orangutans with choice and control over their environment as well as enrichment opportunities that build physical and cognitive skills for their for their overall wellbeing. Animal Enrichment is very important here at your Zoo and the Pushbutton Water Spray Feature will allow our orangutans to interact and spray guests with water with the push of a button! Play is a very important part of enrichment and something that orangutans in the wild engage in regularly. The spray feature will also help keep our guests cool on those hot summer days.

The new habitat project is important to both orangutans at the Zoo and orangutans in the wild. Integrated into the new orangutan habitat will be a research station where animal behavioural scientists an study these majestic tree dwellers and what we learn here we will share globally to help restores the Sumatran orangutan population. By visiting the new habitat, guests will also learn about the Palm Oil crisis – how it’s devastating the orangutans’ natural habitat – and what each and every one of us can do to make better, sustainable palm oil choices.

To learn more about this important initiative or make a donation in honour of Puppe please visit wildlifeconservancy.ca/donate and select “Puppe’s 54^th Birthday Fund”.

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Toronto Zoo Media Contact:

Beth Gilhespy
Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy Executive Director
(416) 392-5913
[email protected]

Amanda Chambers
Supervisor of Strategic Communications
Toronto Zoo
[email protected]

For general information visit torontozoo.com

The Toronto Zoo’s mission is to connect people, animals and conservation science to fight extinction and our vision is a world where wildlife and wild spaces thrive.

An iconic tourist attraction and Conservation organization, the Toronto Zoo boasts a number of leading programs for helping wildlife and their natural habitats – from species reintroduction to reproductive research. A world-class educational centre for people of all ages, the Toronto Zoo is open every day including December 25 and attracts approximately 1.2 million guests each year.

Toronto Zoo is accredited by Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The Zoo has also achieved the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) Certificate of Good Animal Practice® and is inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

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