We took advantage of the holiday today and spent the day at Brookfield Zoo.
 I was fascinated by the orangutans, and thought we could learn from these
primate cousins of ours.  The exhibit had a lot of information about the
childreading habits of orangutans.  It turns out that they nurse their young
for 7-8 years, and that a new baby will be carried constantly by its mother
and never out of contact with it's mother until it is about 1 year old, when
it will also start eating some solid food.
The zoo has an interesting nursing couple, too.  One of the younger orangs
was hand-reared by keepers as its mother failed to care for it.  At the age
of about 1 year, she was introduced to a single adult female orangutan who
had no children of her own.  The older orang was apparently very nuturing
and became the young one's surrogate mother.  After they were together 4
mos, the little one began nursing, and the surrogate mother now produces
milk and has continued to nurse the little orphan, who's now several years
old!  The exhibit made the point that this surrogate mothering was very
important since hand-reared apes often are poor parents themselves, having
never learned proper parental behavior.
Turns out our zoo trip showed great examples of attachment parenting,
extended nursing, and even adoptive nursing of an older child!
Jennifer Tieman
Family Physician
Mom to 4, including nursling Caroline Rose born 5/31/03

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