NEW ORLEANS – NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Patients and staff at New Orleans Children’s Hospital chose ‘Madu’ as the name of an endangered Sumatran Orangutan born in february at the city zoo. The Malay word means “honey”.

Madu got 80 votes, seven more than Matahari, a Malay word meaning “sun,” Audubon Zoo spokesperson Annie Kinler Matherne said in an email on Thursday. She said Bani, an Indonesian word for “children”, was third with 48 votes.

Matherne said a few patients good enough to go to the zoo were in attendance when a banner with the baby’s name was unveiled in front of the orangutan’s habitat ahead of the zoo opening on Wednesday.

“Our patients really enjoyed being invited to help name Audubon’s baby orangutan. … This is a great example of finding creative ways to work together to provide that little extra to our patients and families, ”Hospital President and CEO John R. Nickens IV, in the zoo press release.

The baby is the first for the mother Reese and the second for the father Jambi since coming from Hanover Zoo in Germany in 2018. Jambi has also fathered Bulan, the female born to the orangutan matriarch Feliz in 2019.

The zoo said that a genetically diverse captive population is important because Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says less than 14,000 live in the wild and their numbers are drastically declining as development, mining and oil palm plantations fragment their forest habitat.

There are currently 95 Sumatran orangutans in human care in 27 zoo and aquarium associations, the zoo said.