Photo by Ken Ardill; Courtesy of Bev Carter of the Toronto Zoo

Dinding reading the fine print– making sure there’s no palm oil in the burlap sack.

Sunday, July 6, 2008, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Toronto Zoo today announced the passing of Dinding, the Zoo’s 50-year-old male orangutan. Dinding had been under treatment for a degenerative disorder for the past 9 months. Following consultation with veterinary and human neurologists, Zoo Veterinary and Animal Care staff made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize Dinding when he recently developed paralysis of his lips and tongue muscles, and had difficulty eating. For the past several months, the orangutan keepers had been caring for Dinding by feeding him a liquefied diet as a result of his inability to chew.

At 50 years of age, Dinding was the third oldest male orangutan in the world at the time of his death. Brought to the Toronto Zoo in 1980, Dinding was an integral contributor to the Zoo’s Species Survival Plan (SSP) for the Sumatran orangutan and is the proud father of eight offspring. The SSP is a North American breeding program with the objective of maintaining a healthy captive orangutan population for the future. Dinding has offspring at the Denver Zoo, the St. Louis Zoo and at the Perth Zoo in Australia.

Dinding, whose name in Indonesian means “charm to ward off evil”, was known for his gentle and charismatic personality as well as his ability to use a computer and watch TV. Zoo keepers considered him a special member of the orangutan troop who was well respected and a leader. “It’s never easy to say good bye to an old friend but he did live an exceptionally long life in comfort: said Jackie Craig, Zoo keeper. “He’ll be missed, but we take solace in knowing that he went without pain and with dignity.”

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