As Borneo's forests disappear, its orangutans are being pushed to the brink

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We have come to visit Camp LAHG, a research station set inside the national park, jointly run by the Borneo Nature Foundation and the University of Palangka Raya.

In Borneo, the great apes have been spotted walking along the forest floor, a behaviour scientists once considered extremely rare. In Sumatra, where predators including the Sumatran Tiger and Sunda Clouded Leopard present an additional threat on the ground, orangutans are more likely to remain in the trees.

The northern part of Borneo is jointly governed by Malaysia and Brunei, while Indonesia controls the remaining 73 per cent of its southern and central territories. Rainforests across Borneo have been progressively reduced since the 1950s, with about half of its original forest cover lost to large-scale agriculture, mining and logging operations over the decades.

The blazes have already burned through some 895,000 hectares of the country, according to monitoring group Nusantara Atlas, with some of the worst fires burning around Kalimantan — the name Indonesia gives to its share of Borneo.

Over the past month, at least 15 orangutans have been rescued from burning forests around the island.

Environmental monitoring group Geopix reported earlier this month that the fires had already impacted around 60 per cent of the island's total orangutan habitat; although the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry has since said that figure needs to be verified.

Borneo’s orangutan population is relatively healthy by comparison; but if more forest is lost, more orangutans will be, too.