Back

Missing Orangutan Mothers 2025: Another Successful Campaign!

Mother's Day is the perfect day to celebrate and pay tribute to orangutan mothers. The Orangutan Outreach Missing Orangutan Mothers (M.O.M.) Campaign is our way of doing precisely that! This annual campaign was created in 2008 as a positive way to bring attention to the crisis facing orangutan mothers and babies – wild orangutan mothers are killed so babies can be taken and sold as illegal pets.

Orangutan Outreach helps to fund the rescue operations of the little apes being held captive in people’s homes, and we support the care of these precious orphans throughout their lives. Our M.O.M. Campaign brings attention to the special bond between orangutan mothers and babies that has been disturbed, and we strive to raise awareness of all the orphaned orangutans being cared for in rescue & rehabilitation centers in Borneo and Sumatra. You can learn all about the M.O.M. Campaign here.

Each year Orangutan Outreach invites zoos, sanctuaries, conservation organizations, and individuals who love orangutans to participate in our M.O.M. Campaign. The campaign culminates on Mother’s Day at which time many zoos hold M.O.M. events. 2025 marked our 18th annual Missing Orangutan Mothers Campaign and we are happy to report its success!

The 2025 M.O.M. Campaign featured orphaned orangutan Selfie. She is cared for by Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation at their Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Center in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). You can read more about Selfie here. Participants shared photos and images featuring Selfie to help promote our campaign, they created social media posts to educate about the orangutan mother-child bond, and they held special events.

Our sincere thanks goes out to Audubon Zoo, Chahinkapa Zoo, and Toledo Zoo for holding May 11th Mother’s Day events at their respective zoos that included keeper chats, themed enrichment for the orangutans, and orangutan training sessions for the public to enjoy. El Paso Zoo celebrated on May 10th for Mexican Mother’s Day and May 11th for Mother’s Day in the United States! Their zoo event included an information booth and devoted Q&A time with the orangutan caregivers. Our special thanks go to Milwaukee County Zoo which has held M.O.M. events every year since 2008. This year’s zoo event in their Primates of the World Building including information tables and educational materials set up in front of their beloved orangutans Tommy and Alex, along with a chance to donate dollars and coins in a zookeeper’s boot! Orangutan artwork was used to create beautiful necklaces that were for sale along with fancifully decorated M.O.M. themed cookies. All items sold out!

We also want to thank all the organizations that supported our MOM2025 campaign via social media, website stories, and including mention of M.O.M. in their newsletters. These groups include: Center for Great Apes; Louisville Zoo; Centre for Orangutan Protection; Orangutan SSP; World Orangutan Events; and our special friends, Orangutan Caring. We truly appreciate all the education and awareness you provided!

Finally, we want to thank our supporters who made donations in honor of Selfie, orangutan mothers, and mothers everywhere! Our heartfelt admiration goes out to Orangutan Outreach super-supporter, Greer Bullock. She organized a fundraiser that included an 8km walk in honor of Missing Orangutan Mothers. She walked across Blackpool, England – one kilometer for every year an orangutan baby should be safe in the forest with its mother. What a fun and engaging way to support the M.O.M. Campaign!

Although Missing Orangutan Mothers is mainly an awareness campaign, we still raised over $3000 USD from donations, fundraisers, and zoo events. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We are already looking forward to next year’s M.O.M. Campaign and we hope you will join us!