Heartrending moment tiny, terrified orangutan baby is plucked to safety after he and his mother were found starving



Primates at risk of starvation or poaching as habitat is destroyed

Rescuers darted mother in tree as she clutched her tiny son



Pair caught in a net before being taken to protected national park



Wide-eyed in fright, a baby orangutan tries his best to escape the clutches of a looming man.

He and his mother have been threatened with starvation by the expansion of palm oil plantations which are destroying their natural habitat in the Sumatran forest.

It's no surprise the sight of yet more humans has terrified them, but these ones have arrived to take them to safety.



At risk: A distressed baby orangutan is picked up by a charity worker as he and his mother are taken to safety from an isolated patch of forest in Sumatra caused by the spread of oil plantations

Cruel to be kind: The mother is attended to by medics after being tranquilised up a tree and falling into a net while clutching her baby

The pair were found by rescuers in an isolated patch of woodland which was due to be cleared for more plantations.

More orangutans are being cut off, putting them at risk of food shortages or being captured for the pet trade.

Hanna Adcock was making a film for the UK charity Sumatran Orangutan Society when their partner organisation, the Orangutan Information Centre’s Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit attempted the relocation in Aceh, North Sumatra.

She said: 'The safest way to save these animals is to tranquilize them and relocated them to a safe area.

Tricky operation: The rescuers had to track the orangutans through the trees before picking the right place and time to fire the tranquiliser gun

Conflict of two species: The mother had two air rifle bullets under her skin, suggesting she had already been in contact with hostile humans

ORANGUTANS NOW CONFINED TO JUST TWO ISLANDS

Once widespread throughout the forests of Asia, orangutans are now confined to just two islands, Sumatra and Borneo. Both species are highly endangered due to habitat loss and poaching. Orangutans breed more slowly than any other primate, with the female producing a baby on average only once every 7-8 years. Infants are dependent on their mothers for at least five years, learning about survival in the forest. Orangutans live for around 45 years in the wild, and a female will usually have no more than three offspring in her lifetime. This means that orangutan populations grow very slowly, and take a long time to recover from habitat disturbance and hunting. Their semi-solitary lifestyle is thought to have evolved due to the unpredictability of available food. The orangutan is one of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, sharing 96.4 per cent of our DNA.

Source: Sumatran Orangutan Society



'In this instance, the team first had to track and find the orangutan and move them to safer, less-dense area in order to be tranquilised.



'Rescues often take a long time and they are extremely tiring as the team have to keep up pace on the ground through streams, mud and vines whilst the orangutan swing quickly in the canopy trees.

'The team make noises to try and steer the orangutan into their desired location and there were spotters on the ground and up in the hills in order to ensure that we didn’t lose her.'

When the team finally got the chance, they shot the mother with a tranquiliser gun, but it took little effect so they had to wait until she tired enough to hit her again, this time with a blow pipe.

Hanna said: 'The mother was aggressive and struggled to hold on with everything she could as she grew weaker in the tree.



'As she was carrying a young male baby, the team believed she resisted falling and letting go even more as she thought that the fall would kill the baby.

'The team positioned themselves underneath her on a steep hill carrying a large net, moving together in order to predict where she might fall.

'Eventually, the struggle was too much for the mother and she fell into the net.'



Ravaged: Experts believe around two million hectares of forest cover are burned down or cleared for oil plantations in Indonesia each year



Medics made sure they had not suffered any spinal injuries or broken bones, but found two air rifle bullets under the mother's skin.



They deemed it was safer to leave them that try to remove them.

As the mother lay flat out on the ground, the baby cried out.



Once it was deemed safe, they taken off in 4x4 vehicles to a protected national park, where once the mother had come to, they were released.