Orangutan Novita rescued from Borneo wildfires as fires threaten endangered apes

Mixed · 2An orangutan nicknamed Novita was rescued from forest fires in Indonesian Borneo in late September and remains in intensive care at the Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation centre in Palangkaraya. 1 2 Mixed · 2Novita is a female estimated to be three to four years old; footage released by a conservation group shows her clinging to the top of a mostly leafless tree as thick smoke drifts over her. 1 2 Right · 1The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation rescued her: a team tranquilised her, gave her oxygen and intravenous fluids, and moved her to the rehabilitation centre. 1

Right · 1Foundation CEO Jamartin Sihite said she had to walk through the fire to reach the tree, so the soles of her feet and her toes were burned. 1 Mixed · 2Andi Muhammad Khadafi, head of the Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, told reporters on Thursday that the burns on her hands and feet are improving, though she may not fully return to how she was before. 1 2 Mixed · 2Novita is among dozens of orangutans rescued from fires across parts of Sumatra and Borneo in recent months; the fires have forced groups to carry out rescues of animals suffering smoke inhalation and burns. 1 2

Centre · 1CNA, citing authorities who spoke to AFP, adds that a male orangutan, Bara, was rescued on Thursday (Oct 8) from the top of a tree on razed land; a local conservation agency official, Handi Nasoka, said he was relatively healthy with minor burns and will be moved to a nature reserve in Central Kalimantan. 2 Centre · 1CNA also reports that, according to WWF, about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago, and that the IUCN warned last month that fires were burning in habitats holding 52 per cent of Borneo's orangutan population. 2 Mixed · 2Indonesia regularly battles dry-season wildfires, which in Borneo typically peak between July and September; this year they have intensified partly because of El Nino, set to be one of the strongest in four decades of comparable records, while slash-and-burn practices and drained peatlands have made landscapes more fire-prone. 1 2

Mixed · 2Government figures show more than 202,000 hectares burned between January and July and have not been updated since, while the satellite-based Nusantara Atlas project estimated nearly 896,000 hectares had burned by the end of August. 1 2 Mixed · 2The fires have caused severe local haze, with tens of thousands of respiratory illness cases, and pollution spikes in Singapore and Malaysia. 1 2