A baby orangutan, rejected by her birth mother, has been adopted by a surrogate orangutan mother.

Officials with the Houston Zoo said when the baby orangutan, Aurora, was born in March, her birth mother took care of her for only 12 hours. After that, officials said she abandoned her and refused repeated attempts by zoo personnel to return the baby to her.

That's when, officials said, 50 volunteers teamed up with the Houston Zoo's primate care team and became Aurora's new parents.

Zoo officials said the volunteers spent nine months taking care of Aurora. During that time, officials said Aurora clung to her caregivers 24 hours a day, seven days a week until she was ready to move around on her own.

In late December, officials said they began to introduce Aurora to her future surrogate mother, Cheyenne.

Lynn Killam, assistant curator of primates with the zoo, said on one occasion, Aurora built up enough nerve to pass through a small door that separated the pair. She said Cheyenne then picked Aurora up and carried her across the room.

"She enveloped the baby into her arms and she carried her away. We were all in tears with shear happiness," Killam said. "Cheyenne is 39 years old. She's never had a biological baby of her own. But this is the fourth one she's raised. The reason we think she's such a good mother is she was raised by her own mother and saw her sister get raised by her own mom and she could have helped with that."

Cheyenne and Aurora will remain together for eight or nine years.

They can be seen daily at the Houston Zoo's Wortham World of Primates orangutan habitat.