KANSAS CITY— The Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium is mourning the loss of a popular orangutan.
Rufus, a 36-year-old male Bornean orangutan, who had lived at the Zoo more than two decades, passed away peacefully on Saturday due to a chronic heart condition, according to a media release from the zoo.
Rufus was born at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in 1988 and arrived in Kansas City in May 2003. He was a subadult at that time, but eventually grew the large cheek flanges that are an identifying feature of adult male orangutans. Rufus had a heart condition that the Zoo’s veterinary health team had been treating and monitoring for many years…