VIDEO: Mother and baby orangutan '˜days away from dying' before charity rescue

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A mother and baby orangutan rescued from the burnt forests of West Borneo by an Uckfield-based charity were only days away from dying of starvation.

The adult female of more than 20 years and her baby of between two and three years old were rescued from a plantation after villagers in Semanai, Simpang Tiga village complained that the starving animals were eating their crops.

A team from International Animal Rescue, whose head office is in Uckfield, travelled to the village, which was about one-and-a half-hour’s drive away from the charity’s rescue centre, and camped out under the tree where the mother and baby were nesting for the night.

The following day, in spite of the mother’s shocking physical condition, it took three anaesthetic darts to make her release her grip on the tree and fall into the net below with her baby still clinging to her.

Photos and footage show the severely emaciated state of the mother, whom the team named Mama Nam, and her baby Nam.

IAR vet Ayu Budi Handayani who took part in the rescue operation said: “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 fleeing from the fires and losing all sources of food and shelter 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.”