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'We will continue your great service': 'Mother Teresa of the Orangutans' dies at 99
The German-born senior curator of Ragunan Zoo, known for her love of the endemic primate species, passed away on Thursday.
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A number of tourists observe orangutans at the Ragunan zoo, South Jakarta, Saturday (12/28/19). (JP/Dionnasius Aditya)
Ulrike Freifrau von Mengden, the senior curator at Ragunan Zoo in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, passed away at the age of 99 on Jan. 23.
Born on April 14, 1920, von Mengden died just three months shy of her 100th birthday.
Ragunan Zoo management posted the news of her death on its Instagram account on Thursday and expressed its condolences.
“Goodbye, Ulrike Von [sic] Mengden. We will continue your great service to orangutan conservation,” it wrote in the post.
Von Mengden, also known as "Ulla", had worked and lived at the zoo for 55 years since 1965, when then-Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin invited her to monitor the animals in the city-owned zoo.
Dubbed the "Mother Teresa of the Orangutans" for her love of the primates, von Mengden came to Indonesia in 1952 from Bonn, Germany, with her husband.
She fostered 37 orangutans throughout her life at her house in the zoo complex.
