The sad and sudden passing of orangutan, Maggie

It is with enormous sadness that we share the sudden death of our magnificent, Maggie.

We can hardly believe she is no longer with us. She was suddenly taken ill on Sunday and despite our vet team working around the clock, and consulting with several orangutan specialists worldwide, we were sadly unable to save her. The cause of her passing is still unclear, we are waiting for further analysis of biopsy samples that have been sent to a laboratory.

Maggie had a horrible start in life. She was illegally hunted from the wild, seeing her mum butchered, and then smuggled to Thailand and sold as a pet. We don’t know who bought her: she was dumped on WFFT’s door, in a dog cage, in 2016. Since then, we’ve done everything possible to give her a better life.

We are devastated to lose Maggie, as we are sure, Chico, our male orangutan is to lose his friend. With Great Ape Giving Day coming up, we were so excited to try and raise the funds to build a waterfall for Maggie and Chico to enjoy. And whilst Maggie will never know this, we hope we can further enrich Chico’s life, with your kindness. He really deserves it.

Thank you to everyone who ever donated to help Maggie – you really did give her a wonderful life for more than five years. She was a happy, playful orangutan who adored to swing from ropes and trees, had an incredibly strong bond with her caregivers, Shawn and Boy, and she was truly loved by the entire WFFT team.

We are working hard to rescue more great apes from situations of abuse and give them better lives too.