Mahal is a Bornean orangutan born in April 2007 at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He was rejected and abused by his young mother and raised by keepers for a while.
He lived briefly with a surrogate before being flown to Milwaukee by private jet to live with a surrogate named M.J.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been following his story since we first heard about Mahal in early February in an e-mail from the Milwaukee County Zoo. Orangutans are endangered in the wild, they wrote, and it was a big deal to have the baby at the Milwaukee zoo.
But Mahal's story is more than just a tale about a zoo baby with a string of bad breaks. It's also about our relationship with animals, the role of zoos and the preservation of species.
The result is a series called "Ambassador Mahal: Face of a Dying Species" by writer Jan Uebelherr and photographer Jack Orton.
The Mahal stories can be seen at www.jsonline.com/mahal beginning on July 6.
(read less)Mahal is a Bornean orangutan born in April 2007 at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He was rejected and abused by his young mother and raised by keepers for a while.
He lived briefly with a surrogate before being flown to Milwaukee by private jet to live with a surrogate named M.J.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been following his story since we first heard about Mahal in early February in an e-mail from the Milwaukee County Zoo. Orangutans are endangered in the wild,...
(read more)
