A brave Bornean orangutan was captured on video fighting off a machine digger in an attempt to save his home from Indonesion loggers. The desperate animal can be seen attempting to stop the excavator with his bare hands in the video shared on social media by the International Animal Rescue (IAR). In a scene reminiscent of a fight against an end-of-level boss in a video game, the orangutan tries climbing on to the arm of the machine, but falls off and then attempts to climb up the back of it.
A brave Bornean orangutan was captured on video fighting off a machine digger in an attempt to save his home from Indonesion loggers. The desperate animal can be seen attempting to stop the excavator with his bare hands in the video shared on social media by the International Animal Rescue (IAR).
In a scene reminiscent of a fight against an end-of-level boss in a video game, the orangutan tries climbing on to the arm of the machine, but falls off and then attempts to climb up the back of it. The incident took place in the Sungai Putri Forest in West Kalimantan, home to the Bornean orangutans, which are an endangered species. The animal in the video was not harmed and thankfully was rescued by the IAR and relocated to a protected part of the forest.
The video certainly proves that the ongoing logging efforts are forcing animals out of their natural habitats against their own will. The IAR reported: “This desperate orangutan is frantically seeking refuge from the destructive power of the bulldozer; a machine that has already decimated everything else around him. Despite all the obstacles thrown at them, our team were able to rescue this orangutan and bring him to safety.
Unfortunately, scenes like this are becoming more and more frequent in Indonesia. Deforestation has caused the orangutan population to plummet; habitats are destroyed, and orangutans are left to starve and die.” Since the 1970s the population of Bornean orangutans in Indonesia has dropped by 50%, and they even risk being executed if they ever return to their original homes where a palm plantation has been set up.
“Sungai Putri is home to one of the largest populations in the world and we are at a critical point for the Bornean orangutan,” Karmele Llano Sanchez, program director of IAR in Indonesia, said. “Without forests like this, they can’t survive.”
