Indonesia’s wildfires caused many animals to leave their habitat and seek safety elsewhere, but even those who made it out alive sometimes faced challenges far more severe than burning forests.
During a rescue operation in Borneo forests, a group of International Animal Rescue volunteers came across a desperate orangutan and her baby, who became victims not only of the blaze, but of human cruelty as well. As a result of the fires, the animals ended up looking for a safe place in a village. People were frightened of the refugees and began to throw things at the terrified mother before attempting to capture and tie her up.
Thankfully the rescue team managed to avert a calamity. They quickly anaesthetized the mother with her frightened baby and transported them to a safe area of protected rainforest. After being released, the animals were monitored by a conservation team to ensure their recovery and acclimatization at the new place.
Due to the fire, likely set by ranchers to clear land for farming, more than a dozen orangutans needed rescue, because many acres of the protected forest that were home for these critically endangered primates turned into ash.
Specialists can’t estimate how many orangutans have been lost in this crisis, claiming this is going to be devastating for orangutan populations in the wild and could even put them close to extinction. This environmental crisis has been considered by experts as the worst manmade ecological disaster of the century, and right now it’s hard to predict how it would affect the lives of people and wild animals in the future.
