Six orangutans including two nursing infants have been rescued from fires raging on Borneo island in the past week, Indonesian authorities and rescuers said on Thursday, bringing the total to 15 in a month.
The apes were saved from plantations in deep rural West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian part of the island, where they got stuck after fires cut off access to their forest home, according to the forestry ministry and the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation.
A large fire was burning just 200 metres (656 feet) from where the group of critically endangered primates were found, the ministry and YIARI said in a joint statement.
“This situation left the orangutans without a safe route back to their habitat; they could only move from one plantation to another,” the statement said.
“In addition to facing the threat of flames and smoke, the orangutans’ movement among plantations also has the potential to increase interactions and conflict with [human] communities.”
Four orangutans were rescued on Friday, with the help of residents and plantation workers, followed by another mother-infant pair on Tuesday.