Yahoo – AFP,
May 2, 2017
Albino orangutans are rare on Borneo island, where most have reddish-brown hair (AFP Photo/HANDOUT) |
A rare
albino orangutan has been rescued on the Indonesian part of Borneo island where
villagers were keeping the white-haired, blue-eyed creature in a cage, a
protection group said Tuesday.
In an
extremely unusual discovery, authorities picked up the female, estimated to be
five years old, in a remote village in Kapuas Hulu district.
The Borneo
Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF), which is caring for the critically
endangered ape -- believed to be albino -- said the organisation had never
before in its 25-year history taken in such an orangutan.
Normal
Bornean orangutans have reddish-brown hair.
Villagers
said they captured the ape -- who has not yet been named -- on Thursday.
Authorities rescued the ape two days later.
"Orangutans
are rare, and an albino orangutan is even rarer," Nico Hermanu, a BOSF
spokesman, told AFP.
"Since
BOSF was founded 25 years ago, we had never before taken in an albino orangutan
at our rehabilitation centre."
Orangutans
on Borneo have seen their habitat shrink dramatically as the
island's
rainforests are increasingly turned into oil palm, rubber or paper
plantations
(AFP Photo/HANDOUT)
|
Pictures
showed dried blood around the creature's nose, with the foundation saying the
injury could have been sustained when the ape was fighting the villagers'
attempts to capture it.
The
orangutan has been taken to BOSF's rehabilitation centre for further
assessment. Almost 500 orangutans are kept at the centre.
The Bornean
orangutan, which along with the Sumatran orangutan are Asia's only great apes,
is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as
"critically endangered" -- just one step away from extinction.
Around
100,000 are estimated to live on Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia,
Brunei and Indonesia, down from 288,500 in 1973 and with their numbers expected
to shrink to 47,000 by 2025, according to the IUCN.
The
creatures have seen their habitat shrink dramatically as the island's
rainforests are increasingly turned into oil palm, rubber or paper plantations,
and are sometimes targeted by villagers who view them as pests.
A rare albino orangutan rescued in the Indonesian part of Borneo island is recovering well according to its veterinarian pic.twitter.com/P0BlByi26a— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 11, 2017
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