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: The orangutan clings to the top of a mostly leafless tree in Indonesia's portion of Borneo as waves of thick smoke from the forest fires burning below waft over her. Nicknamed Novita, the ape shown in footage released by a conservation group is among dozens that have been rescued from wildfires burning across parts of Sumatra and Borneo in recent months.
They include Bara, a male orangutan plucked from the haze on Thursday, authorities told AFP. "He was found on top of a tree on razed land. The haze was quite thick in the area because fires were burning around there," Handi Nasoka, a local natural resources conservation agency official, said of Bara on Friday.
"Seeing the condition of the recently burned lands ... we didn't dare to gamble and assume he'll survive." Bara was "relatively healthy, with minor burn injuries," Nasoka added, and will be moved to a nature reserve elsewhere in the Central Kalimantan region where he was rescued. Wildfires have piled pressure on already endangered orangutans, forcing local groups and authorities to carry out high-stakes rescues of animals suffering smoke inhalation and burns. Novita, a female estimated to be 3 to 4 years old, remains at the Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation center in Indonesia's Palangkaraya after being rescued last month.
"Novita is still receiving intensive care," Andi Muhammad Khadafi, head of the Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, told reporters on Thursday. "We've been told that the burns on her hands and feet are improving, although even after she recovers, she may not return 100% to how she was before she suffered the burns." "She had to leave her habitat, and we had to rescue her, primarily because of the flames," he added. Novita was rescued by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which has taken in several apes caught up in forest fires.
She was found clinging to a tree in late September and tranquilized by a rescue team that administered oxygen and intravenous fluids before moving her to the rehabilitation center. "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 foundation CEO Jamartin Sihite.
Orangutans are critically endangered, and around 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago, according to conservation group WWF. Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned fires were burning in habitats containing 52% of Borneo's orangutan population. "Fire and smoke exposure impose measurable physiological, behavioral and ecological costs on orangutans in peat forest habitats," the conservation network said.
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