Jungle school for orang-utans — in pictures

Orphan orang-utans in Indonesian Borneo must build nests, find food and avoid predators — especially man — to prove they’re ready to “graduate” and return to the wild, but life in the real world has never been more perilous.

Last month, for the first time in history, Bornean orang-utans were declared critically endangered — one step away from total extinction.

Experts warn these majestic primates — who could once cross Borneo without ever touching the ground — could vanish entirely from the island within 50 years as the rainforest they’ve inhabited for centuries is felled and burnt at alarming speed.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Ayu Budi, a veterinarian who heads the orang-utan health clinic at the International Animal Rescue centre in West Kalimantan province. “When you see them, it’s really sad. They’re supposed to be with their mothers in the wild, living happily, but they’re here.”

The 101 orang-utans under Ms Budi’s care — including the 16 playful infants — are the lucky ones, rescued near death and nurtured back to health with baby bottles in a tranche of protected forest outside the city of Ketapang.

But hundreds of thousands of their species have died in the past four decades across Borneo, slaughtered by hunters, burnt in land-clearing fires or starved to death by habitat loss.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature — which changed the species’s threat level to critical — estimates a mere 47,000 will be left in the wild by 2025.

“I think people on the ground working in Borneo have known for a long time that the orang-utan situation was pretty desperate,” said Chris Wiggs, a conservation adviser at IAR’s forest outpost in Ketapang.

Two of the school’s newest pupils are Vijay and Moli who were found without their mothers near burnt land. They are the victims of fire, an annual scourge that has escalated into a major threat to the future of the species.

Every dry season across Indonesian Borneo, fires are illegally lit by land owners to quickly and cheaply clear forest for new plantations.

The fires often get out of hand, tearing through forest and smouldering relentlessly on Borneo’s compact, carbon-rich peatlands. Last year’s blazes were among the worst on record.

Under international pressure, Jakarta has promised action. This month an Indonesian company linked to the 2015 fires was slapped with a US$80 million fine — a record for slash and burn activities, a spokesman for the environment minister said.

Orphan orang-utans in Indonesian Borneo must build nests, find food and avoid predators — especially man — to prove they’re ready to “graduate” and return to the wild, but life in the real world has never been more perilous. Photos by Bay Ismoyo / AFP Photo