Three Orangutans Rescued by Animal Conservation Agency in Indonesia

Human encroachment on orangutan habitat in Indonesia threatens the extinction of the species, according to International Animal Rescue (IAR). Orangutans in Indonesia are also illegally hunted or kept as pets, Reuters reported.  Animal rescue workers try to save these endangered creatures by capturing them and relocating them back into the wild. In this video, International Animal Rescue (IAR) workers set their sights on a wild orangutan squatting in a local resident’s garden and damaging crops in the area. Footage shows rescuers preparing equipment to capture and transport the orangutan, which they named Tomang. After tracking Tomang down, a worker aims a rifle charged with an anesthetic dart. Watch the video, which details the capture and rescue of this wild orangutan. Another two orangutans named Joy and Utu were rescued from wooden cages, after they were bought from a hunter for $21 each by their owners and kept as pets in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is illegal to keep an orangutan as a pet in Indonesia. All the orangutans were later relocated to the conservation area of a National Park run by the local government, according to the IAR.