“We’ve been told that the burns on her hands and feet are improving, although even after she recovers, she may not return 100 per cent to how she was before she suffered the burns.”
“She had to leave her habitat, and we had to rescue her, primarily because of the flames,” he added.
CONSERVATION WARNINGS
Novita was rescued by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which has taken in several apes caught up in forest fires.
She was found clinging to a tree in late September and tranquilised by a rescue team who administered oxygen and intravenous fluids before moving her to the rehabilitation centre.
“We rescued her from an area that was burning. Before we reached her, she had to walk through the fire to get to the tree and climb it, so the soles of her feet and her toes were burned,” said foundation CEO Jamartin Sihite.
Orangutans are critically endangered, and about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago, according to conservation group WWF.
Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned fires were burning in habitats containing 52 per cent of Borneo’s orangutan population.
