This Video of Rescued Orphan Orangutans is Just as Important as it is Adorable

The team at International Animal Rescue’s (IAR) orangutan rehabilitation center in Borneo is doing everything they can to give the orangutans featured in this video a normal, healthy life. The orangutans are currently in Forest School, where they spend their days outdoors, honing climbing skills, foraging skills, and learning to behave like wild orangutans. But it’s not all fun and games, they also have to be weighed and given regular checkups to make sure they’re all growing up nice and strong!

The illegal wildlife trade poses a huge threat for orangutans. In the past seven years, an estimated 1,019 orangutans were captured for sale in various markets. Sadly, great apes like orangutans are often seen as status symbols, which means they are taken captive and, if they’re lucky enough to be rescued, need to be taught how to survive in the wild.

The illegal trade isn’t the only threat to these animals. Orangutans are also at high risk because of palm oil production. Every hour, an area the size of 300 football fields is cleared to make way for palm oil plantations. Being that orangutans are an arboreal species, they are dependent on the lush rainforest environment for their livelihood. Tragically, over 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed in the past two decades alone, primarily because of palm oil production.

Thankfully, IAR is doing all they can to rescue orphaned and injured orangutans and give them a second chance at life in the wild.

If you’d like to help IAR continue to put orangutans back in the wild, visit their website and consider donating.