PALANGKARAYA: Indonesian conservation workers rescued an orangutan ensnared in rope and her baby on the island of Borneo where the critically endangered animals are at risk from boar traps and wildfires, an official said Sunday.
The female orangutan named Gadis, about 25 years old, and her son Garis, 10 months, were found snared in a suspected trap early Friday near a village in Central Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo.
"Gadis was found with the ropes tied to her upper right arm and lower left arms, and the wounds were bad because the ropes had torn deep into her flesh," local conservation official Muriansyah told AFP by telephone on Sunday.
"It looked like the ropes were set up as a wild boar snare trap," added Muriansyah, who like many Indonesians has one name.
Both were receiving treatment at the Orangutan Foundation International clinic near the village of Pangkalan Bun.
Wild boar hunting using rope snares is legal and common in parts of Indonesia as a pest control measure to protect crops, but illegal inside protected forests or national parks.
Officials have repeatedly cautioned that careless placement of snares near wildlife areas could instead trap endangered sun bears or orangutans.
Dozens of orangutans have also been rescued in recent weeks from rampant wildfires burning across Indonesia that have cloaked the Southeast Asian region in a toxic haze.
Two more were released in Ketapang, West Kalimantan on Saturday after being rescued from an oil palm plantation.
Orangutans are critically endangered and only about 120,000 remain in the wild in Borneo and Sumatra – about half the number from a century ago, according to conservation group WWF.
Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said fires were burning in habitats containing 52 percent of Borneo's orangutan population.
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