El Niño fires threaten local extinctions of Indonesia's Bornean orangutans

Fires fueled by a strong El Niño are burning through Indonesian forests that are home to more than half the world's critically endangered Bornean orangutans, and conservationists warn that some local populations could disappear.

As of Sept. 22, Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry had rescued 100 wild animals from burning areas, including 53 orangutans. One of them, a 4-year-old named Novita, was found near Sebangau National Park with burns on all four hands and feet.

The fires are hitting 13 of the 20 largest remaining orangutan populations, including habitat that holds 70% of the Central Bornean subspecies. Losses are hard to recover from: females give birth only once every six to eight years. During the 1997-98 El Niño fires, researchers estimated that thousands of orangutans died, possibly a third of the global population at the time.

"If this metapopulation continues to burn, there could be local extinction," said Ronna Saab, executive director of the Indonesian Orangutan Conservation Forum (FORINA), referring to networks of small groups living in separate forest patches.

Fires are burning inside Sebangau, Gunung Palung and Tanjung Puting national parks, where more than 4,500 hectares had burned by Sept. 13. The government has deployed 64 aircraft and more than 54,000 personnel since August, and fires are expected to continue until the rains return in late October or November.

A primate specialist group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature called for more international funding for firefighting and for rewetting drained peatlands to stop fires from recurring.

This brief is based on reporting by Hans Nicholas Jong, published Oct. 5, 2026, in Mongabay. Read the original: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/