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Five baby orangutans are found abandoned on an Indian plantation 1,700 miles from home as the illegal ape trade booms

Five baby orangutans at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, whose mothers were most likely killed, leaving infants who would normally cling to them for up to nine years.
Five baby orangutans at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, whose mothers were most likely killed, leaving infants who would normally cling to them for up to nine years.

Their mothers were most likely killed, leaving infants who would normally cling to them for up to nine years. Villagers in Odisha were baffled in September by the animals' reddish hair and strange faces. The three males and two females, aged six to eight months, came from Borneo and Sumatra. Zoo keepers are now playing them classical music to calm them, while experts raise questions about a billionaire's zoo.

The global black market in wildlife is reportedly worth $34 billion a year, with India a key buyer.

In 2022, two young Sumatran orangutans were discovered stuffed in boxes at an Assam-Mizoram checkpoint.

India's wildlife laws were written to stop native tigers and rhinos leaving, not exotic apes arriving.

MoreThe IndependentBaby orangutans found in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question billionaire’s zooAPBaby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question a billionaire’s zooAPIndia emerges as major destination for trafficked orangutans and other endangered apesThe IndependentBaby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade
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