A DNA test performed on a baby orangutan at a Swiss zoo found she was fathered by an orangutan separated from her mother by a fence. Photo courtesy of the Basel Zoo
The test found Padma's mother, Maja, had instead gotten pregnant from Vendel, 18, a male orangutan in an adjacent enclosure.
Officials said the orangutans apparently managed to mate through the holes in the fence separating their enclosure.
The zoo said Vendel is the dominant male at the zoo and is the only of the facility's three male orangutans to have cheek pads, which female orangutans in the wild have been known to seek out when they are in heat.
