The late Ah Meng was a female Sumatran orang-utan who was smuggled from Indonesia and kept illegally as a pet before being recovered by a veterinarian in 1971. After which she was given a home in the SZG.

She was the tourism icon of Singapore and even hosted the Zoo’s “Breakfast with Ah Meng” programme, making her a celebrity. This programme allowed visitors to interact with her and was successful in raising public awareness of the importance of protecting the orang-utans and its natural habitat.

She died on 8 February 2008 due to old age at an age of 48 years old or 95 orang-utan years. In memory of her, an “Ah Meng Memorial Conservation Fund” was set up by National University of Singapore (NUS). It was the first recipient to receive $500,000 over 5 years from the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) to aid in the support of research of endangered wildlife by students and faculty members of NUS (Chua & Tham, 2010).

Picture credit

Ah Meng. Source: Singapore Straits Times