Conservation groups have rescued at least 51 critically endangered orangutans in Indonesia as rampant wildfires and prolonged smoke pollution continue to devastate their natural habitat.
The rescues took place between August 6 and October 19, according to reports. Among those saved were multiple mothers with infants and young males that had been stranded by the fires.
This year's super El Nino weather pattern has made Indonesia exceptionally hot and dry. Wildfires have burned approximately 2.2 million acres of land during the current season, destroying vast stretches of orangutan habitat across Borneo.
Jamartin Sihite, chairman of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, said the scale of destruction is severe. "It's destroyed the orangutan habitat, orangutan home," he said.
Sihite warned that the fires have affected a significant portion of the species' remaining range. "If I look at the maps from the fire and the map from the population of orangutan in the forest, I thought more than 50 to 60% of the habitat of orangutan now getting burned or at least got impact from the smoke," he said.
The smoke poses serious health risks to both humans and orangutans. Sihite said acute respiratory infection is among the gravest immediate threats. "Like a human, acute respiratory infection. This is the biggest problems now for human and for the orangutan," he said.
He noted that while humans can wear masks to protect themselves from smoke inhalation, orangutans cannot.
One of the rescued animals is a five-year-old female named Novita, found in the forest canopy surrounded by smoke and flame. Twenty percent of her body was burned, including her hands and feet. She was treated with a nebulizer to assist her breathing and is now recovering at a rehabilitation center.
Sihite's organization is one of several groups operating in the affected area. They conducted a similar rescue operation in 2015, when massive forest and peatland fires swept through Indonesia.
Wendy Erb, a biological anthropologist specializing in primate behavior at Cornell University, was stationed at a field site in Borneo during the 2015 fires. She and her team dug small wells into the peatland and used generators to pump water from several meters below the surface in an effort to fight the flames. They remained trapped for a month until sufficient rainfall finally extinguished the fires.
Erb cautioned that the dangers do not end when the fires are put out. Sihite echoed that concern, warning of food scarcity in the aftermath. "After the fire, we still face the problems in the forest. We will face, like, scarcity of food because there is no pollination. There is no fruit," he said.
Approximately 104,000 Borneo orangutans remain in Indonesia. Rescue agencies are still working to assess how best to assist the broader population affected by this season's fires.
Despite the scale of the crisis, Erb expressed cautious optimism about the species' ability to endure. "Because orangutans are quite resilient and pretty flexible, as well as incredibly intelligent and ecologically resourceful, they really can sort of make a go at even a pretty degraded habitat," she said.
