News submitted recently by various organizations that care for and watch over populations of orangutans in the wild on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, in Indonesia, reported that a great number of individuals are being found starving and face serious lack of space to refugee themselves in the jungle.

Companies that grow palms for oil exploration are rapidly invading the area of ??protection of orangutans, without a pre-study of the invaded territory and of the relocation of these primates to safe areas of the jungle, so they can have food and shelter.

A few weeks ago, organization IAR (International Animal Rescue) showed dramatic photos of the rescue of 30 orangutan babies, who were located in a forest on the island of Borneo without food and on the verge of death. Their parents were presumed dead when the jungle was invaded by palm planters, who usually put fire to clear areas before going to work. The 30 babies were brought by volunteers on hand carts to a rescue center provisionally, to later on be relocated to a safe area of ??the jungle.

In another rescue center of the same organization other orangutans were located after being found in precarious situation and are awaiting the opportunity to be reintroduced into their natural habitat. An alternative of this organization, which has made a worldwide appeal for funds to the care of these populations of great apes, is to buy small islands in Indonesia, in order to reintroduce, under strict control, these rescued populations.

The orangutan rescue centers in Indonesia are full of rescued individuals.

Karmele Llano Sanchez, Executive Director of IAR Indonesia, reporting the recent rescues, said: “We were very impressed by the appalling conditions in which these were orangutans were. All of them had spent long periods of time without food before being rescued, as the area where they were found had been destroyed by palm plantation companies to prepare the ground for planting;  what’s left for the orangutans did not give offer the minimum provision of food  necessary. ” He added: “A female orangutan had lost her baby, probably killed before the rescuers found her.”

He concluded: “The situation is so dramatic that these areas that are being cleared that the orangutans only feed on tree barks, as fruit and leaves no longer exist.”

It is estimated that fewer than 50,000 orangutans – and perhaps much less than this number – are left in both Islands of Indonesia, which could mean its disappearance  as a free wild species within 20 years.