Tonda, (1958 – 23 March 2009), was the oldest
orangutan
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genu ...
in the United States.
Tonda died on March 23, 2009, at
ZooWorld in
Panama City Beach, Florida
Panama City Beach is a resort town in Bay County, Florida, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico coast. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 12,018. The city is often referred to under the umbrella term of "Panama City". Panama City Bea ...
, aged 50.
Biography
Tonda, short for Tondaleyo, died in her sleep at the age of 50. Tonda had represented the oldest registered orangutan in captivity in the United States.
Cultural references
Tonda, along with a male kitten named T.K., had earned a modicum of fame after being named the second-best animal odd couple by
Animal Planet
Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...
. The pair were also the subject of a book, ''Tonda and TK: Friends''.
See also
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Ah Meng (c. 18 June 1960 — 8 February 2008) — female
Sumatran orangutan and a tourism icon of
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
*
Bonnie
Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
— orangutan; began whistling (mimicking an animal caretaker), which is changing ideas about primate sound repertoires.
*
Chantek (born 1977) — orangutan; involved with language research and
ApeNet language-using great ape ambassador
*
List of apes
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Orangutans in popular culture
*
Oldest apes
References
{{Notable apes
1959 animal births
2009 animal deaths
Individual orangutans
Individual primates in the United States