This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Six orangutans, including two nursing infants, have been rescued from fires raging on Borneo in the past week, Indonesian authorities and rescuers said Thursday, bringing the total to 15 in a month. The apes were saved from plantations in rural West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian part of the island, where they got stuck after fires cut off access to their forest home, according to the forestry ministry and the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation.
A large fire was burning just 200 meters (656 feet) from where the group of critically endangered primates was found, the ministry and YIARI said in a joint statement. "This situation left the orangutans without a safe route back to their habitat; they could only move from one plantation to another," said the statement. "In addition to facing the threat of flames and smoke, the orangutans' movement among plantations also has the potential to increase interactions and conflict with (human) communities." Four orangutans were rescued Friday with the help of residents and plantation workers, followed by another mother-infant pair Tuesday.
Rescuers had to anesthetize the animals to minimize stress and the risk of injury. All six were taken to YIARI's rehabilitation center in the town of Ketapang. Orangutans are endemic to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra—two of the places hardest hit by wildfires that have destroyed vast swaths of land and spewed putrid haze that has spread as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
The Indonesian government said more than 202,000 hectares of land burned countrywide between January and July. Figures for August have yet to be released. The Nusantara Atlas project has put the number closer to 300,000 hectares and on Thursday estimated 895,657 hectares, including August.
Last week, the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the haze emitted by the fires was the worst for any August in 24 years. Indonesia's dry season typically runs from July to October, made worse this year by a strong episode of the El Niño weather phenomenon. Wildfires emit dangerous levels of PM2.5 particles, which are so small they can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream, with potentially dire health consequences.
According to Greenpeace estimates using government data, some 35 million people in Indonesia are exposed to toxic haze. Some 43,000 firefighters were deployed to combat the blazes, national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Berton Panjaitan told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday. He said a Japanese navy ship had arrived in West Kalimantan with three helicopters to aid water-bombing efforts.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
