‘There could be local extinction’: The fight to protect Indonesia’s orangutans as El Niño fuels fires

Fires fueled by strong El Niño conditions are burning across Indonesian rainforests that hold more than half the world's critically endangered Bornean orangutan population, prompting scientists to call for urgent intervention. As of September 22, Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry reported 100 rescued animals, including 53 orangutans, among them a young orangutan named Novita found with severe burns on all four limbs.

Conservationists describe orangutans trapped by surrounding flames with nowhere to flee, including an adult male who died of smoke-related oxygen deprivation despite treatment. Females with young are especially at risk because they tend to stay in established home ranges and move slowly when fire spreads.

The fires are also destroying habitat already weakened by repeated burning, including a decade-long restoration site in West Kalimantan where 150,000 trees were planted. Experts warn some isolated orangutan subpopulations could face what one conservation official called ‘local extinction,’ compounded by the species' extremely slow reproductive rate of one birth every six to eight years.

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