Fires forcing out orang-utans

The mother orang-utan and her baby were in poor health when rescued. Photo / International Animal Rescue

A malnourished mother orang-utan and her youngster were found distressed and clinging to one another in Borneo as locals hurled rocks at them and tried to tie them up.

The two apes were saved by charity International Animal Rescue, who anaesthatised the mother and removed rope from her wrists.

Many orang-utans have been moving near villages to find food, but locals view them as pests and there has been an increase in human-animal conflict.

"It was very fortunate our rescue team got there in time, otherwise the orang-utans would have been killed," Karmele Llano Sanchez, the group's programme director, told AFP.

"The mother was quite skinny because she had not been eating for at least a month since the fires started."

The pair, who were rescued last month in West Kalimantan province, have been released into the wild following medical checkups, and International Animal Rescue is continuing to monitor their health.

The charity, based in Britain, has conducted more than a dozen operations in the past two months to save orang-utans who have strayed out of their natural habitats.

Illegal forest and agricultural fires set to cheaply clear land for Indonesian plantations have for months cloaked South East Asia in thick haze, fouling air across the region, causing many to fall ill and sending diplomatic tensions soaring.

The area is under threat due to rapid deforestation and oil palm development, and much of Indonesia's peatlands are ablaze, releasing carbon dioxide.