Five infant orangutans, species native only to the Indonesian archipelago, were found abandoned in an Indian forest — their impossible presence a quiet indictment of the illegal wildlife trade that moves endangered animals across borders as though borders were the least of their concerns. Indonesian authorities have formally sought their return, while a criminal investigation opens into how creatures so young, so dependent, and so few in number came to be so far from home. The case is both a diplomatic matter and a moral one: Sumatran orangutans number barely 13,500 in the wild, and every infa
Indonesia seeks return of five trafficked baby orangutans found in India
Five critically endangered infant orangutans were separated from mothers and trafficked across international borders, requiring rescue and rehabilitation.