Incredible snaps show orphaned orangutan babies getting to grips with jungle life
Experts have now warned that these majestic apes could vanish entirely from the island within only 50 years - as the ancient rainforest they've inhabited for centuries is chopped down at alarming speed
THESE stunning pictures show baby orangutans enjoying their time at ‘jungle school;’ in Borneo.
A baby orangutan named Otan can be seen swinging along, switching hands and hanging upside down as he builds confidence high above the forest floor.
The three-year-old ape is having to learn to fend for himself since he was found last year, wandering a palm oil plantation, alone and suffering with smoke inhalation.
Otan and the other orphans at the ‘school’ must learn to build nests, find food and avoid predators -- especially man - to prove that they're ready to ‘graduate’ and return to the wild.
Sadly, life in the real world has never been more dangerous for these endangered primates.
Last month, for the first time in history, Bornean orangutans were declared critically endangered – which is classed as one step away from total extinction.
Experts have now warned that these majestic apes could vanish entirely from the island within only 50 years - as the ancient rainforest they've inhabited for centuries is chopped down at alarming speed.
Ayu Budi, a veterinarian who heads the orangutan health clinic at the International Animal Rescue centre in West Kalimantan province, said: "It's heartbreaking, when you see them, it's really sad.
“They're supposed to be with their mothers in the wild, living happily, but they're here."
The 101 orangutans under Ayu’s care are the lucky ones, rescued near death and nurtured back to health.
But hundreds of thousands of others have died in the past four decades across Borneo – with many slaughtered by hunters, burned in land-clearing fires or starved to death because of their loss of habitat.
The rapid expansion of palm oil operations across the island has reduced the species’ habitat by at least 55 percent in only two decades.
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Shockingly, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which changed the species’ threat level to critical, now estimates a mere 47,000 will be left in the wild by 2025.
Chris Wiggs, a conservation adviser at IAR's forest outpost in Ketapang told AFP: "I think people on the ground working in Borneo have known for a long time that the orangutan situation was pretty desperate.”
The number of great apes at the centre has continued to rapidly grow as ever-increasing amounts of the rainforest is cleared by industry.
Two of the school's newest pupils are little Vijay and Moli - who were found without their mothers near an area of burned land.
Fires have now evolved into a major threat to the future of the beautiful species.
Every dry season across Indonesian Borneo, fires are illegally lit by land owners to quickly and cheaply clear large areas forest to make rooms for new plantations.
The fires often get out of hand and last year's blazes were among the worst on record.
Conservationists now fear that if there were to be a repeat disaster of that scale, it would ring the death knell for the Bornean orangutan.
Chris added: "I think we're all pretty scared... whether the species can take another hit like that.”
Under international pressure, Jakarta has promised action.
This month an Indonesian company linked to the 2015 fires was slapped with a whopping $80million fine (around £61million) – a record for ‘slash and burn activities’, a spokesman for the environment minister said.
Sustyo Iriono, the head of the government's conservation agency in West Kalimantan, told AFP: "We need to restore and rehabilitate our peatlands, and fix past mistakes."
Ayu and her colleagues remain optimistic, but she frets that the young apes might never get the chance to prove their independence in the wild, as Borneo's lowland forests continue to shrink.
"I think they still have a chance, but if the forest is gone, it will be difficult," she added.