A white-haired, blue-eyed albino orangutan has been rescued from captivity in a remote Indonesian village.
The five-year-old female primate was found just two days after villagers captured her, following a tip-off from local police on the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said in a statement.
Bornean orangutans are classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to hunting as well as habitat loss, as the island’s forests are illegally logged or destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. Albino orangutans are considered extremely rare, and the one rescued on Saturday was the first ever seen by the group.
Considered one of the most intelligent primates on Earth, orangutans are protected by national and international law, but the trade in infants taken from the wild for the pet trade continues to thrive.
According to BOSF, the rescued orangutan’s “hair, eye, and skin color is paler than normal, and she is also sensitive to light.” Since she was only held captive for two days, she “still displays wild behaviors,” the group says, and could soon be released back into the wild.
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