Starving Mama Orangutan and Baby Saved From Decimated Forest (VIDEO)

Fires that devastated large areas of Borneo continue to affect the wildlife that calls the heavily forested area home, leaving many injured, homeless, and hungry. Some of the most vulnerable animals are orangutans. Luckily, rescue groups on the ground are providing aid to help these them. Amond these incredible organizations is International Animal Rescue (IAR), which recently saved a mother and baby, who would likely not survived another week on their own.

Rescuers were first alerted to the mama and baby in need when villagers complained the starving animals were eating their crops. When IAR located the pair, they saw both were in grave condition. The mother, whom the team named Mama Nun, was severely emaciated, and her baby, named Nam, was starving because his mother was too weak to produce milk.

“It is amazing that, despite the fact that she was so skinny and weak, this mother was still determined to protect her baby. She had already undergone the trauma of losing all sources of food and shelter when the forest was destroyed and then she had to contend with being hit by an anaesthetic dart and caught in a net. The poor thing couldn’t know that we were there to help not harm her,”  said vet Ayu Budi Handayan.

Thankfully, Mama Nun and Nam are now recovering at IAR’s Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Ketapang. Both mother and baby are well on their way back to health, and Mama Nun is even producing milk again for little one.

In this case, rescuers stepped in just in time to save this family, but there are many more orangutans that need help. To Support IAR’s care for Mama Nam, Nam, and rescue more orangutans in need, click here.