Rescuers scramble to save orangutans as El Niño-boosted fires spread across Borneo

Conservationists in Indonesian Borneo are racing to pull orangutans out of wildfire zones as a strengthening El Niño dries out peatlands across Kalimantan and Sumatra. YIARI, a Borneo-based NGO, says it rescued seven orangutans through August, including one adult male who died hours later from smoke exposure despite treatment.

Indonesia's disaster agency reports nearly 49,000 hectares burned across six provinces through early August, with West Kalimantan's Ketapang district posting more heat-signature hotspots than anywhere else in the province. The Bornean orangutan population has reportedly collapsed roughly 86% since 1950, and researchers say recurring peat fires knock the species back hard about once a decade.

Government and NGO teams describe an ad hoc system: villagers spot a weakened animal near a plantation, call it in, and a rescue team drives out to evacuate mothers and infants from patches of forest cut off by fire. Officials say they are on high alert; the dry season, and the fires with it, are expected to run through October.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.