Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in India, prompting authorities to investigate if they were trafficked into the country from south-east Asia.
The orangutans, native only to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra and known for their shaggy red fur, were found in Balasore district of Odisha state, thousands of kilometres away from their natural habitat.
Odisha’s environment minister, Ram Singh Khuntia, said wildlife investigators were trying to establish how the rare apes reached India.
Related: Indonesia wildfires threaten orangutans rescued from animal traffickers
“We suspect that an international racket might be involved in this,” Singh said.
International commercial trade in orangutans is prohibited under Cites – a global agreement governing trade in endangered wildlife.
The five babies were found by forest department officials who were patrolling in the Jaleswar range in Balasore district.
Officials believed the orangutans had been in the area for just a few days, and they have now been placed in quarantine at a zoological park in Odisha.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago.
The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), a third species, is classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 800 believed to survive in the wild.
In November, conservationists found the Tapanuli population had been reduced by 7% after severe flooding in Indonesia.
Between 33 and 54 Tapanuli orangutans were estimated to have been killed in widespread floods and landslides in North Sumatra province.
Previous research has suggested annual losses of 1% of the Tapanuli orangutan population would be sufficient to lead to eventual extinction.
The entire Tapanuli population dwells solely in the West Block of the Batang Toru, a forest threatened by mining, palm oil plantations and a large hydropower project.
