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

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A zoo in Switzerland said an orangutan paternity test had some surprising results when officials discovered the mother and father are in different enclosures.

The Basel Zoo said officials carried out a DNA test on 5-month-old orangutan Padma as part of an endangered species breeding program, and they were surprised to discover the only male in her enclosure, Budi, 14, was not her father.


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.