A young female orangutan is receiving intensive medical treatment for burn injuries in Indonesian Borneo after being pulled from a raging forest fire, conservation officials said on Thursday.
The ape, estimated to be between three and four years old and nicknamed Novita, was rescued in late September by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. Rescuers found her clinging to the canopy of a largely bare tree surrounded by dense smoke, having walked across burning ground before climbing to safety.
The rescue team tranquilised the ape, administered oxygen and intravenous fluids, and transported her to the Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation centre in Palangkaraya, where she remains in intensive care.
“We rescued her from an area that was burning. Before we reached her, she had to walk through the fire to get to the tree and climb it, so the soles of her feet and her toes were burned,” said Jamartin Sihite, chief executive of the foundation.
Andi Muhammad Khadafi, head of the Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, said medical reports showed burns on the animal's hands and feet were improving, though he cautioned that “even after she recovers, she may not return 100 percent to how she was before she suffered the burns.”
Novita is among dozens of orangutans rescued across Sumatra and Borneo in recent months as fires threaten the endangered species. Wildfires in Indonesia typically peak between July and September, but blazes have intensified this year due to a strong El Nino weather pattern alongside slash-and-burn land clearing and the drying of peatlands.
Government figures show more than 202,000 hectares were destroyed by fire between January and July. Satellite monitoring by the Nusantara Atlas project estimated nearly 896,000 hectares had burned by the end of August. The resulting smoke has triggered tens of thousands of respiratory cases locally and caused air pollution spikes in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
