Indonesia releases eight orangutans rescued from fires

Indonesia has released eight orangutans rescued from fires on Borneo into a protected forest, authorities and wildlife rescuers said Sunday.

The forestry ministry and the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation said the orangutans were saved last month from several fire-hit locations, mostly plantations near their forest homes, in West Kalimantan province.

The animals — three mother-and-baby pairs and two male teenagers — were relocated Friday to Batu Nyambu Protected Forest, a 23,000-hectare reserve in West Kalimantan with primary and secondary forest cover.

YIARI chief executive Karmele Llano Sanchez said relocation was a “necessary step” when the animals' habitat was no longer safe. YIARI operational director Argitoe Ranting said the reserve was chosen because it had food and water and was connected to other forests.

Local natural resources agency head Murlan Dameria Pane said Indonesian authorities and YIARI rescued 46 orangutans from fire threats between August and October 9.

Orangutans are critically endangered. Conservation group WWF says about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago.

Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned that fires were burning in habitats containing 52 percent of Borneo's orangutan population. Indonesia regularly battles wildfires during the dry season, and the fires have intensified this year because of the El Nino weather phenomenon, with experts also pointing to slash-and-burn land-clearing practices.