With her bright orange fur and friendly face, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this orangutan as a youngster.
But Bella is actually the world’s oldest living orangutan in captivity, having celebrated her 63rd birthday this week.
Bella was collected from the wild in 1964, and is estimated to have been born in 1961, making her the same age as Barack Obama, Eddie Murphy, and Jennifer Coolidge.
She celebrated her birthday at her home in Hagenbeck Zoo, Hamburg, with a cake made from soft-boiled rice and fruits.
‘Our orangutan lady turns 63 today and continues to hold the world record for being the oldest Sumatran orangutan in human care,’ the zoo said in a post on Instagram.
With her bright orange fur and friendly face, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this orangutan as a youngster. But Bella is actually the world’s oldest living orangutan in captivity, having celebrated her 63rd birthday this week
Typically, orangutans living in the wild live to around 35-40 years, while those living in captivity can expect to reach around 50 years.
However, Bella has defied the odds, and has officially held the Guinness World Record as the oldest living orangutan since 2021.
According to her keepers, Bella is ‘honest, prudent, curious, intelligent, loving and never aggressive.
Over the course of her life, she’s not only given birth to six children of her own, but has also raised four adopted children who were not accepted by their mothers.
For this reason, she’s earned the nickname of ‘supermom’.
‘Because of her age, Bella no longer comes to the facility regularly. Usually she does a few climbing laps in the evening hours undisturbed,’ the zoo explained.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Bella has very few teeth remaining.
To make sure she could still join in on the birthday celebrations, she was given a birthday cake made of soft-boiled rice and various fruits, which she shared with one of her adopted children, Berani.
Bella is not the only old ape to have celebrated a birthday recently.
Typically, orangutans living in the wild live to around 35-40 years, while those living in captivity can expect to reach around 50 years. Pictured: Bella in 2015
Earlier this month, the world’s oldest living gorilla in captivity, Fatou, celebrated her 67th birthday.
Fatou was captured in the wild in 1959 and brought to France by a sailor, who used her as payment to settle his tab at a tavern.
Fatou was purchased in the same year by Berlin Zoo, where she’s lived ever since.
‘Nowadays, capturing wild animals for zoos is no longer considered acceptable by the zoological community,’ Guinness World Records explained.
‘The vast majority of animals are now born within captivity or transferred between facilities for breeding programmes.’
