“With concussion and sadness we announce that the orangutan Zoe has passed away“. The news was given by the Bioparco of Rome with a post on Facebook. “He was 37 years old, a rather advanced age for this species. She was born in the Rome Zoological Garden and for many years she shared the area with her mother Petronilla and sister Martina. At the beginning of June, following a malaise, she underwent in-depth health checks. After the first encouraging signs of recovery, at the beginning of the week you began to show symptoms of apathy and lack of interest in food, followed by a sudden worsening linked to a presumed acute pulmonary infection. The autopsy will confirm the causes of death.
“The President of the Rome Bioparco Foundation Paola Palanza expresses on behalf of all the staff the great regret for Zoe’s passing: ‘her sweetness and her ability to look people in the eye will be greatly missed; her keepers will be greatly missed who they had a deep and intense relationship with her”.
“Zoe was inquisitive and very intelligent. She loved interacting with people in a playful way, especially with children. The orangutan, perhaps more than all other anthropomorphic apes, resembles us humans. The thousands of visitors must have thought so as they approached the glass of the fence that housed our Zoe and who met her gaze “.
“Biruté Galdikas wrote in his Reflection of Eden ‘I looked a wild orangutan in the eye and he returned my gaze. It is an almost indescribable experience… Communicating with a wild specimen of a different species means glimpsing another reality'”. “We hope we can continue to look these animals in the eye, which are disappearing quickly in nature,” reads the post on Facebook.
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