So long, Siamang

Kevin, a Wallingford resident and Woodland Park Zoo volunteer, writes:

I thought you and your readers would want to know: Simon, one of the siamangs at the zoo, was humanely euthanized yesterday. The siamangs are the apes that make that mid-morning call that carries all the way across Phinney Ridge and Wallingford. Simon was very old (34 years old) and was suffering from complications of old age; siamangs generally live to 25-30 in the wild and up to 30 in zoos.

The zoo is looking at bringing in a new male siamang to keep with Briony, their female. That process will probably take a while though, so don’t expect to hear a morning siamang call for a while. Interestingly, every pair of siamangs has a unique styling to their call, so when they do have a new male, their call will sound different than the one that Simon and Briony made.

There’s more on the Zoo’s web site.

(Photo by Dennis Dow, Woodland Park Zoo)