G erhana 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, clinging 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 as fluffy brown monkeys perched in the branches. Lizards the size of crocodiles darted across the forest floor as gem-colored frogs leaped through the mud and leopards hunted their dinner. Each night, Gerhana and his mother snuggled together 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 scenario is not uncommon, as more and more of the rainforest where orangutans live is 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, coal mines, and palm oil plantations. (Palm oil is found in many foods and products, from pizza dough and chocolate to shampoo and toothpaste.)
For orangutans like Gerhana, this deforestation is a catastrophe. Orangutans survive on the fruit and plants the rainforest produces, so 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 inseparable as the mother helps her baby learn critical skills, such as 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 in captivity.
No one is sure exactly what happened to Gerhana after his mother died, but 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.