Gerhana lay in the dirt. He was sick, starving, and alone. Death was closing in on the baby orangutan.
Just a few months earlier, Gerhana had been a healthy newborn. He clung to his mother’s side. They lived in the bright-green rainforests of Borneo. That’s an island in Southeast Asia.
All around them, the jungle burst with life. Flying squirrels glided from tree to tree. Monkeys perched in the branches. Lizards the size of crocodiles darted across the forest floor. Gem-colored frogs leaped through the mud. Leopards hunted their dinner.
Baby Gerhana [guhr-HAH-nuh] and his mother snuggled together each night. They slept in a leafy nest high in the treetops.
But one day, disaster struck. Gerhana’s mother was killed. She was probably shot by a hunter hired to keep orangutans away from crops.
Gerhana lay in the dirt. He was sick and alone.
Gerhana [guhr-HAH-nuh] had been a healthy baby. He used to live wIth his mother in the rainforest. They used to sleep in a leafy nest in the treetops.
The rainforest is in Borneo. That’s an island in Southeast Asia.
Gerhana’s mother had been killed. She was probably shot by someone who wanted to keep orangutans away from farms.
Gerhana lay in the dirt. He was sick, hungry, and alone. The baby orangutan was close to death.
Gerhana was born just a few months earlier. He had been a healthy baby who stayed at his mother’s side. They lived in the bright-green rainforests of Borneo. That’s an island in Southeast Asia.
The jungle was full of life. Flying squirrels glided from tree to tree. Monkeys sat in the branches. Lizards as big as crocodiles ran across the ground.
Bright frogs jumped through the mud. Leopards hunted their dinner.
Baby Gerhana [guhr-HAH-nuh] and his mother hugged each other at night. They slept in a leafy nest high in the treetops.
But one day, disaster struck. Gerhana’s mother was killed. She was probably shot by someone who wanted to keep orangutans away from crops.
Gerhana lay in the dirt—sick, starving, and alone. Death was closing in.
Just a few months earlier, the baby orangutan had been a healthy newborn. He would cling to his mother’s side as she swung through the trees in the lush rainforests of Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia. All around them, the bright-green jungle burst with life. Flying squirrels glided from tree to tree. Fluffy brown monkeys perched in the branches. Lizards the size of crocodiles darted across the forest floor. Gem-colored frogs leaped through the mud, and leopards hunted their dinner.
Baby Gerhana [guhr-HAH-nuh] and his mother snuggled together each night in a comfy nest of leaves high in the treetops.
But then one day, disaster struck.
Gerhana’s mother was killed, probably shot by a hunter hired to keep orangutans away from crops.
Sadly, this is not uncommon, as more of the rainforest where orangutans live is being destroyed. Since the 1980s, about 30 percent of Borneo’s rainforests have been cleared by humans. Hundreds of millions of trees have been cut down for timber and to make room for coal mines and palm oil plantations. (Palm oil is found in many foods and products, including pizza dough, chocolate, and toothpaste.)
For orangutans like Gerhana, this deforestation is a catastrophe. Orangutans survive on the fruits and plants that grow in the rainforest. As their habitat shrinks, so does their source of food. To avoid starvation, the apes wander into places where humans live, looking for something to eat. But many humans see the orangutans as pests—like roaches and rats—and kill them.
Without his mother, Gerhana stood little chance of survival in the wild. For the first seven or so years of life, a baby orangutan is completely dependent on its mother. The two are never apart as the mother helps her baby learn how to find food, swing through the trees, and build a nest to sleep in.
Orphaned babies are doomed. Some starve. Many others are illegally captured and sold to private zoos, where they are forced to live behind bars.
No one is sure exactly what happened to Gerhana after his mother died. It is likely that he stayed by her side. Only six months old and unable to climb trees by himself, Gerhana would have been stranded. All he could have done was cry out—miserable, starving, and alone.
But help was on the way.