Nonja was a female Sumatran Orangutan

Sumatran Orangutan

The Sumatran orangutan is one of the two species of orangutans. Found only on the island of Sumatra, in Indonesia, it is rarer and smaller than the Bornean orangutan. The Sumatran orangutan grows to about tall and in males...

 who was thought to be the oldest of her species in either the wild or captivity. She was 55 years old when she died in 2007.

Nonja, whose name meant "girl" in Malaysian

Malaysian language

Malaysian or Standard Malay is the official language of Malaysia and a standardized form of the Malay language of the Austronesian family. It is over 80% cognate with Indonesian and is spoken natively by over 10 million people...

, was brought to the Miami Metrozoo

Miami MetroZoo

The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, branded and commonly called Zoo Miami , is the largest and oldest zoological garden in Florida, and the only tropical zoo in the continental United States...

 from a zoo in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 in 1983. She continued to reside at the Miami Metro Zoo for the rest of her life. Nonja gave birth to five offspring.

Nonja died at the Miami MetroZoo on Saturday, December 29, 2007. Experts believe that she died of either a brain tumor

Brain tumor

A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...

 or an aneurysm

Aneurysm

An aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...

. She was 55 years old when she died. Most orangutans die before they reach their mid-40s, which made Nonja unique and likely the oldest living orangutan in the world at the time.