Mother orangutan and infant rescued from smoke in Borneo's Kalimantan

Following a tip about an orangutan spotted high in a tree during intense forest-fire smoke, officials in central Kalimantan located a mature female and her one-year-old daughter. The animals were promptly rescued and transferred to a secure area, where preliminary veterinary examinations indicated they were unharmed by the haze. They were then taken to a clinic for further monitoring, with plans to release them back into the wild if health permits.

The rescue comes amid a broader effort to protect wildlife as thick smoke from fires on Borneo and Sumatra drifts toward Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In western Kalimantan, at least seven orangutans have been saved in recent weeks. The species remains critically threatened, with populations estimated at roughly 57,000 on Borneo and 11,000 on Sumatra.