Five baby orangutans rescued from forest in eastern India

Forest officials in Odisha, India, rescued five baby orangutans from a forest on Tuesday, 8 September. Local residents found the animals and reported them. The orangutans were alone, and officials believe they had been there for only two or three days.

The animals were taken to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, where they are being kept in quarantine. A search of the forest found no other orangutans and no clues about how they got there.

Orangutans live naturally only on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, so their presence in India is very unusual. Authorities think the animals may have been smuggled into the country illegally. Police, forest officials, and India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau have all joined the investigation.