Jakarta- The authorities of Indonesia reported this Thursday the death of an orangutan from the island of Borneo – a critically endangered species – that inhaled smoke caused by the fires that have spread across the archipelago for weeks, after being found in a weak state and with breathing difficulties near a burning area on Sunday.
The orangutan, an adult male named Sampurna, died the same day it was found in an oil palm plantation, the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency said in a statement today.
A rescue team composed of personnel from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and the Indonesian Alliance Foundation for Rehabilitation Initiatives (Yiari) He went to the location where the orangutan was after receiving a tip and “administered first aid,” including intravenous fluids, before transferring it to an NGO rehabilitation center.
However, its status “He continued to deteriorate (…) His breathing became increasingly shallow and oxygen saturation was undetectable. After showing signs of respiratory arrest, the team performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Finally, Sampurna was declared dead”said the Conservation Agency, which attributed his death to smoke inhalation.
Images shared on Monday showed the orangutan lying on the ground while Yiari members examined and treated him, giving him oxygen and medications to alleviate the effects of smoke inhalation and cleaning his mouth.
The Bornean orangutan –Pongo pygmaeus– is classified as critically endangered according to the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its population has decreased drastically in recent decades, due to human pressure on its natural habitat.
Indonesia is fighting hundreds of fires that have been burning for weeks throughout the country, most on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which have forced the closure of more than 12,000 schools and whose smoke reaches neighboring countries.
In the last 24 hours, the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) has detected 182 new fires, bringing the total number of active outbreaks to 659.
In many plantations in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, agricultural burning is used to prepare crops and, although fires can be extinguished, embers can remain for months in land called peatlands, especially in the dry season, which this year is expected to last until the end of September.
Last week, the Indonesian Government sanctioned six companies for fires on land under its management in Borneo – an island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei that is home to a significant population of orangutans – after threatening to revoke permits for companies linked to the agricultural fires that are spreading across the archipelago.