Vicky - the matriarch

While we refer to her as Vicky, her full name is actually Victoria. We believe she was named after the hospital, which sites on a neighbouring site to the zoo, after they kindly donated some surplus incubators to help keepers care for her.

The story of Vicky’s parents has not been as easy to trace, both her mother, Azimat, and father, Dodo, were wild born during the 1960’s. Azimat arrived in Blackpool on 6th July 1972, the same day the zoo opened its doors for the very first time. She spent much of her adult life at Blackpool, with a few short loans to other collections, before moving to Dudley Zoo in 1990, where she ultimately died in January 2012.

Vicky has made news twice in the past few years as she has undergone surgery by leading human and animal medical experts to alleviate severe congestion caused by chronic sinusitis and air sacculitis. Click here to find out more about her surgery.

Now aged 31, Vicky lives here with our resident male, Ramon, and her two daughters, Cherie and Summer.

Vicky is quite a dominant orangutan, and can be quite bossy. She’s got a sweet tooth and favours yogurt as a snack.

A popular character with our visitors, Vicky will quite often sit by the window and flash passers by her infamous toothy grin, or sit combing her fringe. 

This week we're celebrating Orangutan Awareness Week by revelaing the little known life stories of our four resident orangutans. You can find out more about the week and what we've got planned here. In an attempt to raise vital funds to support their rescue efforts in Borneo, we’ll be auctioning off a selection of unique, one of a kind artworks by our resident male orangutan, Ramon, on our Facebook page.