Eight fire-rescued orangutans released into Borneo reserve after summer of blazes

Three mothers carrying their young, two teenage males, and a journey that took six hours by car, an hour by boat, and two more on foot through the forest: on Friday, eight orangutans rescued from Borneo's summer wildfires were finally released back into the wild, carried in cages on bamboo poles to a protected reserve they had never seen before.

Indonesian authorities and the YIARI wildlife rehabilitation foundation announced the release on Sunday. The eight apes — comprising three mother-and-offspring pairs and two juvenile males — were moved to the Batu Nyambu Protected Forest in West Kalimantan, a 23,000-hectare expanse of primary and secondary forest on Borneo's Indonesian side, selected because of its plentiful food and water and its links to surrounding forested areas.

Their relocation to Batu Nyambu protected forest is expected to give the eight orangutans a chance to return to living naturally.— YIARI, statement

Sunday's release covered eight of the 46 critically endangered great apes that the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency and YIARI have pulled to safety since August, a period in which wildfires — made worse this year by the El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon — swept through plantations and forest edges across West Kalimantan province. Before the journey began, conservationists examined each animal and determined it was healthy enough to be returned to the wild.

The individual stories behind the group illustrate how the fires pushed the apes into increasingly desperate situations. Mama Lifa and her offspring, Lifa, were found in mid-September clinging to a patch of acacia trees entirely surrounded by oil palm plantations after their habitat was degraded by fire and stripped of food sources. Mama Nopi and her daughter Nopi, along with juvenile males Naufal and Nopan, were rescued in early September from a coconut and rubber plantation where fires had cut off their access to food. Mama Man and her baby, Man, were evacuated after fires spread to a plantation area where they had been living, blocking any safe route to nearby forest.

We want to ensure that rescued orangutans are not simply moved from one place to another, but actually have a chance to survive in their natural habitat.— Argitoe Ranting, YIARI

Not every animal survived. Residents found a male orangutan named Sampurna, thought to be about 20 years old, gasping for breath; he died after rescuers reached him, according to The Independent. In Central Kalimantan province, a female named Novita was spotted holding on to a nearly bare tree while thick smoke hung over a burned landscape, her hands and feet bearing burns she sustained while crossing scorched ground in search of a tree.

The palms of her hands and the soles of her feet suffered burns that were likely sustained when Novita crossed a burned area while trying to reach a tree.— Jamartin Sihite, chairman, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

The fires form part of what Indonesian authorities have described as the country's most intense wildfire season in 11 years, burning primarily across Sumatra and Borneo. Government data recorded around 202,000 hectares burned between January and July; non-governmental estimates indicated at least 600,000 hectares more had burned by the end of August. Indonesian authorities have cautioned that the blazes may persist through November.

The human toll is also significant. The fires' haze has triggered 175,000 respiratory illness cases in Indonesia, and the smog has drifted into neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, where deteriorating air quality led to the closure of many schools on Friday.

Found in the wild only on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, orangutans are critically endangered great apes. All three recognised species are native to Indonesia, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Their population has fallen from more than 230,000 a century ago to around 104,000 today, driven by deforestation, wildfires, and poaching. This year's fires were made worse by El Niño.

With the fire season not yet over and dozens more rescued apes still in rehabilitation, conservationists and Indonesian authorities face weeks of continued work before the full scale of this year's damage to Borneo's orangutan population can be assessed.

Why it matters — Bornean orangutans have lost more than half their population in a century, and each fire season pushes the species closer to the edge — this release is a small but concrete measure of what it takes to keep them alive.

Sources differ on Total hectares burned in Indonesia by end of August 2026: ~202,000 hectares (January–July, official government data) (devdiscourse.com) vs ~896,000 hectares by end of August (Nusantara Atlas independent project) (independent.co.uk)

Reported by co.jp, japantimes.co.jp, dawn.com, en.antaranews.com, independent.co.uk, devdiscourse.com