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IN TEARS: Zookeepers, many of them crying, saying their final farewell to the beloved orang utan at the zoo funeral yesterday. -- ST PHOTOS: NG SOR LUAN
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SHE was a celebrity to many, but to her children and grandchildren, Ah Meng was their caring and generous mother who made sure they ate before she did.
Yesterday, before a crowd of 4,000 visitors said their last goodbyes to the Sumatran orang utan who died last Friday, her family had a private moment with her.
One grandchild touched her face gently, but others became upset when they saw her motionless, said zoo curator Alagappasamy Chellaiyah.
'You can look into their (the other orang utans') eyes, somehow or other, they knew that...Ah Meng was gone,' said the 57-year-old, who had tended to Ah Meng since she first arrived at the zoo.
The face of the Singapore Zoo, Ah Meng died in her enclosure after a breakfast of fruits. She was 48 years old, or 95 in human years.
Survived by four children and six grandchildren - some no longer at the zoo - Ah Meng was the orang utans' matriarch. Some of the remaining 24 animals have refused to eat in the past two days. Others are clearly subdued, said Mr Alagappasamy.
Just as touched by her passing were zoo visitors. Some 4,000 people turned up and admission fees were waived in the morning to accommodate well-wishers wanting to pay their last respects.
Ex-zoo staff, adults who remembered her as children and regular visitors to her enclosure were among them.
Visitors signed a guestbook, bought commemorative books and brought flowers for her casket.
For 71-year-old photographer William Nai, Ah Meng was his first and only 'model'. When she first arrived at the zoo in 1971 after being rescued from a family that had kept her illegally, he volunteered to take her photo.
'I was there when she gave birth to her first child, and when she escaped to MacRitchie Reservoir...she was a very good model.
'Now, I am taking her last picture,' said the resident photographer and assistant manager of special duties at the zoo.
After eulogies from Mr Alagappasamy and Ms Fanny Lai, executive director of the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, eight zookeepers lowered her white coffin covered with flowers into the ground.
Ah Meng became the first animal at the zoo to be buried in its compound.
'She loved this area, and it has got the best view in the zoo,' Ms Lai said of Ah Meng's grave overlooking the Upper Seletar Reservoir.
mariaa@sph.com.sg
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