Nénette / Un Animal, Des Animaux (ej svensk text)

Nénette Nénette is doubtless one of the best known residents of the Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes. Born in the jungle of Borneo, she arrived there on June 16 1972, at an estimated age of 3 or 4. She is therefore a little older than 40 now, which is exceptional when you realize that in the wild an orang-utan rarely lives more than 35 years. She has had three mates and given birth to four offspring: the first two were sent abroad as part of a European programme for the preservation of endangered species (EEP). The third, Tübo (born in 1994) lives with her. As for Dayou, her last born, he died of a heart attack in 2007, at the age of 8. There are currently four Borneo orang-utans at the Menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes. Théodora and her daughter Tamü arrived in late 2007, from Twycross Zoo (Great Britain). The Orang-Utan, an endangered species The name “orang-utan” comes from the Malay orang hutan, which means “man of the forest”. Once present throughout a large part of Asia, it now only lives in the wild in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. In the last 20 years, poaching and the destruction of 80% of its natural habitat have brought the Borneo orang-utan (Pongo Pygmaeus) to the verge of extinction. In all probability, there are only 30,000 left in the wild, its Sumatran cousin (Pongo Abelli) being even more seriously at risk with only 3,000 individuals. If no large-scale action is undertaken, the species could become extinct in the wild in the next fifteen years. Galloping deforestation is mostly responsible for this decline. The trade in tropical wood and the intense farming of oil palms are the two main causes. The Menagerie at the Jardin des plantes In the heart of Paris, a stone’s throw from the Seine and the Gare d’Austerlitz, the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes is one of the world’s oldest zoos. Opened in 1794 - six years after the death of Buffon, its founding father - it houses a thousand mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, along with 1,200 arthropods and invertebrates. On the historical register since 1993, in spite of its great age it carries out the three missions that the National Natural History Museum has given it: the preservation of animals species, the dissemination of knowledge, and research in fields as varied as biology, veterinary medicine, taxonomy, population genetics and animal behaviour studies. More than 600,000 visitors go there each year