The Orangutans: Tengku, Tara, Asmara, Raya

1995 — 11 January 2026

The line: The zoo's orangutan record begins with a single arrival: Tengku, a male Sumatran orangutan who came from Zoo Atlanta in 1995, the year Orangutan Valley opened. In 2013 a female, Tara, arrived from the Columbus Zoo. The pair bred on the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Orangutan Species Survival Plan, under a detailed birth management plan the zoo wrote for a mother who had never given birth and had never watched another female raise an infant.

Asmara: In the early morning of Saturday, 22 November 2014, Tara, nineteen years old, gave birth to a healthy female, Asmara — a critically endangered species breeding in Franke Park. Asmara grew up in Orangutan Valley as one of the zoo's most watched residents. The troop around her now includes Melati, a female of forty-one, named in the zoo's 2026 release.

The lost infant: The record also carries a death, at the size the zoo gave it. On 16 August 2023 Tara bore a son — the zoo's third orangutan birth, and its second male since 2006. The zoo announced the baby's check-up proudly; nine days later, on 25 August 2023, it announced that the infant had died, with a necropsy to determine the cause. "Tara provided excellent care to her young baby and was an incredibly attentive mother," said Dr. Kami Fox, the zoo's director of animal health and conservation. No name had been chosen.

Raya: On 11 January 2026, twenty minutes after the last member of her animal care team left for the day, Tara — now thirty — gave birth again, unassisted, to a female named Raya, from the Indonesian word for "grand." Her father is Tengku, thirty-nine. The zoo had prepared a fifty-page birth management plan; its senior animal care specialist, Angie Selzer, serves as the AZA Orangutan Species Survival Plan coordinator for all of North America — the continent's orangutan breeding program is coordinated from this zoo. Raya was announced to the public on 11 February 2026 and introduced through the spring season, on exhibit in rotation beside her mother and her eleven-year-old sister.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, "Our Animals" and birth accounts, February 2015 (Asmara, b. 22 November 2014; Tengku ex-Atlanta 1995; Tara ex-Columbus 2013; the SSP recommendation and birth management plan), via the zoo's published record.
2. "Baby orangutan dies at Fort Wayne Children's Zoo," 96.3 XKE (Adams wire), 25 August 2023 (the son born 16 August 2023; his death; Dr. Kami Fox, quoted; the third orangutan birth).
3. Fort Wayne Zoo news release, "Fort Wayne Zoo Announces New Baby Orangutan," 11 February 2026 (Raya, b. 11 January 2026; Tara, 30; Tengku, 39; Melati, 41; Asmara, 11; Selzer the SSP coordinator; the fifty-page plan), fwzoo.com.
4. Fort Wayne Zoo, "Meet Raya, the Newest Arrival at the Fort Wayne Zoo," zoo release, 11 February 2026 (the birth twenty minutes after the team's departure; Tara's unassisted delivery), fwzoo.com.