2nd-oldest known female orangutan dies at Brookfield Zoo

CHICAGO - A 54-year-old orangutan named Maggie - the second-oldest known female of her species - has died at Brookfield Zoo after weeks of declining health.

Zoo officials announced Saturday that "staff made the difficult decision" to euthanize Maggie on Friday because her age-related ailments had "severely impacted" her quality of life.

A zoo statement said she was beloved and regarded as "curious, intelligent, and playful" by the zoo's primate staff.

She was the world's second oldest-known female Bornean orangutan. Zoo spokeswoman Sondra Katzen says the oldest was born in 1955 and lives at Tokyo's Tama Zoo.

Maggie, a mother of four, was born in 1961 at the San Diego Zoo. She arrived in 1995 at the Brookfield Zoo, where she served a crucial surrogate mother role to two orangutan infants.