3 Wide-Eyed Babies Found In Blazing Wildfire

"FIRE EMERGENCY SITUATION: We have fires in forests (Pematang Gadung and Sungai Besar) which are full of orangutans," International Animal Rescue (IAR) announced on Facebook Wednesday morning. "We have rescued 4 orangutans in Pelansi in the last couple of weeks and have just rescued another male near the centre. Our Human-orangutan conflict teams are currently following 3 more orangutans at risk in other locations."

These are the strong and desperate words dispatched from a delicate orangutan habitat in Indonesia that is being ravaged by forest fires - and hardly making the news. Last month alone, 63forest fires plagued Indonesian rainforests, wreaking havoc on rare orangutan families. Babies were found lost and displaced from their parents.

In a move to help them, people started taking them in - but to keep them as pets, not knowing how best to care for them, or raise them in the longterm. It can be hard to imagine the lives in danger right now in these jungles, but some of the babies rescued earlier this month from the chaos help give the crisis a face.

Villagers discovered Limpang crying by a river at the edge of the forest. Limpang, who was named for the region where he was found, was just about 8 months old - with no mother in sight. He was kept as a pet by the villagers for a month before the head of the village persuaded them to hand him over to professional rescuers at IAR.

Otan was found thin and weak by workers on a palm oil plantation. One of the workers took him home and tried to care for him, but knew Otan would need professional care, so brought him to IAR.

Seponti was found terribly dehydrated because of the smoke from the forest fires. She was kept for 11 days by locals before being handed over to rescuers for expert care.

The last thing endangered orangutans need is a blazing wildfire threatening their already diminishing habitat. "The situation is just getting worse and worse ... We are going to need lots more people, equipment and funds to combat fires, the worst is to come," IAR wrote on Facebook. "I hope we can send the message out about the situation here ... If there is a god i hope god can help us ... "

Learn how you can help people in the field saving orangutans from the fires here.