Orangutan rescued from Indonesian forest fires battles illness

An orangutan rescued from a fire zone in West Kalimantan, Borneo on 2026-08-30 was found by a farmer named Jais and is now battling respiratory illness caused by smoke exposure. The province has been hard-hit by raging forest fires.

2 reportsinternational

Claim audit

No BS check run yet — press ⚖ to extract this story's claims and verify them against independent sources.

All coverage

Orangutan rescued from Borneo fire battles respiratory illness

rss:scmpinternational30d ago kagi ↗

On Sunday morning, ⁠Jais, a farmer in ⁠Ketapang, West Kalimantan on Borneo island – the ⁠province hardest-hit by raging forest fires – was en route to his farm when he found an orangutan writhing on the ground in a weak state on a palm-oil plantation near the fire site. “It was very weak, then I gave it water,” ‌said Jais, who only goes by one name. Indonesia has intensified efforts to contain haz