Eight orangutans rescued from fires went into a Ketapang forest

Eight Bornean orangutans rescued from forest and land fires were released on October 9 into Batu Nyambu Protected Forest in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. ANTARA News reported the next day that the group was three mothers with their infants and two juvenile males, all taken from fire-hit places in Ketapang and North Kayong between August and September.

YIARI operations director Argitoe Ranting said many orangutans have lost habitat while the fires are still burning, and that safe forest able to hold them is limited. Batu Nyambu was chosen because it covers about 23,000 hectares, with food, water, and links to neighboring forest. Before the move, the eight had health checks and time at YIARI's rehabilitation centre in Sungai Awan. They were healthy and still behaving as wild orangutans.

Getting them there took about six hours by road, an hour by boat, and about two hours on foot. They were released one after another at points about 80 metres apart, so people would disturb them less. The release is these eight animals, in a forest judged safer from the fires. It is not a count of orangutans still stranded, and ANTARA did not say the fires were over.