A 52-year-old Sumatran sweetheart had a grand old birthday party on Saturday at the Toronto Zoo.
Puppe the orangutan, who has been at the zoo since she came from Germany in 1974 as a six-year-old, was feted inside the Indo-Malaya Pavilion in front of well-wishers.
She meandered from her gated paddock out into the enclosure, past adults and children pressed up against a glass barrier window.
In the distance a birthday card with its insides coating in peanut butter and a pink cardboard three-tiered cake, full of toys and treats, sat for her to open and unwrap.
Pam, wearing an orangutan pendant on a necklace, said she has been coming to the zoo since she was a teenager and has been a volunteer for close to a decade
She waited 45 minutes inside the very humid pavilion until Puppe emerged.
“She means so much to me I love her. She is a character and an ambassador for the Toronto Zoo,” said Pam, who has watched her evolve.
“When she was a mom, when she had the babies and now in her later years it really means a lot to me and a lot of visitors at the zoo.”
The Zoo wildlife staff brought out a big pink cake, made out of cardboard, that had various compartments full of multi-coloured plastic balls, peanuts and other treats plus a few large gift boxes with big frilly pink and blue bows.
Not acting like a 52-year-old, Puppe ripped apart the gifts like any kid would, discarding the wrapping paper, bows and hay-filled stuffing while delighted onlookers recorded video with iPads and phones.
“People come up to us everyday and talk about moments they have had with Puppe,” wildlife staffer Amanda Carroll said of the orangutan, a resident at the Toronto Zoo since it opened.
“I’ve had so many people up and say I’ve had my baby when Puppe had hers,” said Carroll. “She is such a people watcher. She loves babies and men with facial hair.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
