Third mom's the charm! Watch tender moment baby orangutan finally bonds with surrogate after two false starts

Looking at these pictures it is difficult to imagine how anyone could fail to love Kecil the orangutan, but he had a troubled start to life after both his mother and surrogate mother rejected him, the Daily Mail reports.

However the seven-month-old ape is now doing well having found love at the third time of asking after being given to Maggie, a 53-year-old Bornean orangutan housed at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago.

Despite her advanced age, Maggie has proved the perfect parent, having taken care of a surrogate baby once before until 2002.

She has been caring for Kecil - whose name means 'little' in Indonesian - for more than a month now and zookeepers say the two have shown promising behavior, with Kecil sleeping in the crook of Maggie's arm.

Jay Petersen, curator of primates and carnivores for the Chicago Zoological Society, said: 'Although it has been only a short time and we have a long road ahead of us, we are extremely optimistic due to Kecil and Maggie’s progress so far.

'Maggie is an easygoing and gentle orangutan. The two have been together since Kecil’s arrival, and Maggie has provided care and attention that he needs to receive from an orangutan.'

Kecil was born on January 11 at Toledo Zoo in Ohio to mother Yasmin. While she has raised her own young before, following a difficult labour she showed little interest in caring for Kecil.

After four months of effort by keepers trying to get Yasmin to care for her baby, staff decided it would be better to place the infant with another mother, and sent him to Milwaukee County Zoo.

He was given to an orangutan named MJ, but despite a month of work by staff, she also failed to bond with the youngster.

As a last hope, he was moved to Chicago and the capable hands of Maggie, arriving at the zoo on June 20.

Since then the pair have shown promising behaviour by playing together, with Kecil even riding around while clinging to Maggie's forearm.

But despite their progress, keepers say it will be a long time before either of them are put on display, as they need to be given time to develop their relationship, while Kecil needs to become more agile in order to negotiate the exhibit.

Orangutans once lived over much of Southeast Asia, but their range and population have been dramatically reduced, mostly thanks to a reduction in habitat.