Back to the treetops: Orang utans rescued from Borneo’s fires find a new home

KETAPANG, Indonesia – Deep in a forest in Indonesian Borneo, conservationists open a cage. A female orang utan and her baby waste little time, clambering up the towering trees and disappearing into the canopy, safe at last.The pair were among nine orang utans rescued from devastating wildfires ravaging their forest home in Ketapang, West Kalimantan province, in August and September.Nursed back to health over several weeks, they now have a new home in Batu Nyambu, a 23,000ha protected area in the same province.When they were rescued, the animals were in bad shape, YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation CEO Karmele Llano Sanchez said.“Some of them had burns on their hands and feet, and some of them were skinny and malnourished,” said Sanchez. “They had to be cared for and fed until they were in good condition again.”The journey to get them to their new home was long and arduous, with conservation workers trekking for hours through steep, slippery terrain, carrying the orang utans in cages suspended from poles digging into their shoulders.Conservationists clapped with joy as the apes fled the cages on Oct 29 and returned to the wild where they belong.Among the nine orang utans were four pairs of mothers and their young.Sanchez said three of the mothers were pregnant again, a fact discovered during the final health check before their release.One of those expecting is Mama Ocha, who was rescued along with her baby, Ocha.“The team will stay around to make sure that she is all right and that she can deliver her baby, and that will be an excellent outcome,” said Sanchez.Once widespread across South-east Asia, orang utans are now critically endangered.According to conservation group WWF, only around 104,000 remain in the wild in Borneo and Sumatra, less than half the estimated population a century ago.‘Extremely stressed’The rescued orang utans spent four to eight weeks recovering in a rehabilitation centre in Ketapang, regaining their strength after the trauma of the fires and smoke.YIARI veterinarian Ishma Maula said their release could not be delayed any longer.“While they were in quarantine and rehabilitation, they were extremely stressed and showed abnormal behaviour,” she said. “We decided to release them as soon as possible after finding a habitat that was safe for them.”Batu Nyambu was chosen as their new home because its forests remain largely untouched and provide abundant food and shelter, offering the best chance for the animals to rebuild their lives, Sanchez said.The team had to travel by car, kayak and hours on foot through dense forest to reach the release site.Volunteers from the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation walk through dense forest to reach the site where rescued orang utans were released back into the wild. PHOTO: AFPThe rescue came as concern for Borneo’s orang utans grows, with wildfires continuing to tear through their shrinking habitat.Indonesia’s forestry ministry says at least 51 orang utans have been rescued from burning forests in West Kalimantan between early August and mid-October.In September, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said fires were burning in areas that support more than half of Borneo’s orang utan population.Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas estimates the blazes consumed more than 1.9 million ha of land in the first nine months of 2026.Experts say much of the destruction is linked to slash-and-burn land-clearing practices, often associated with the expansion of timber, palm oil and mining operations. AFP