Ensnared female orangutan and her baby rescued in Indonesia

Indonesian conservationists have successfully rescued a female orangutan named Gadis and her 10-month-old son Garis from a palm oil plantation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The mother and child were ensnared in a suspected wild boar snare, with the ropes causing serious injuries to Gadis. The critical situation was discovered early Friday near a village in Central Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo.

Gadis, around 25 years old, was found with ropes tightly bound around her upper right arm and lower left arm. The deep wounds to her flesh were evident, indicating a critical condition. The ropes were believed to have been set up as a snare, commonly used for wild boar pest control, though illegal inside protected forests and national parks. Both Gadis and Garis are receiving treatment at the Orangutan Foundation International clinic in Pangkalan Bun.

Wild boar hunting using rope snares is legal in parts of Indonesia as a crop protection method, but poses a significant threat to endangered species when placed carelessly near wildlife areas. The incident highlights the ongoing risk to orangutans, which are critically endangered, with only about 120,000 remaining in the wild on Borneo and Sumatra - a population that has halved over the past century.

Recent weeks have seen dozens of orangutans rescued from rampant wildfires that have engulfed Indonesia, shrouding the region in a toxic haze. Two additional orangutans were released in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, on Saturday after being rescued from an oil palm plantation.

Orangutans are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to WWF, the species is now found in only about 120,000 individuals in the wild, a population that has dwindled by half over the last century. Last month, the IUCN released a report warning that fires were burning in habitats containing 52% of Borneo's orangutan population.