Aan, orangutan shot with 104 air pellets, rescued in Indonesia
An orangutan relaxing on January 24, 2012 at a zoo in Krefeld, Germany.
Aan, an orangutan that was rescued from Indonesia's Borneo island earlier this week after sustaining 104 air pellet shots, is on her way to recovery.
On Saturday, the Orangutan Foundation’s Tigor Nainggolan said that veterinarians at a rehabilitation center in Borneo had been able 32 of the total 104 pellets lodged in her body and head, according to the Associated Press.
He also said that another operation would be performed as long as Aan's condition remains steady.
The ape was shot earlier this month on a palm oil plantation in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, and has been blinded in one eye due to the shots.
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"She is fighting hard. She was badly wounded, but she's starting to eat so we're hopeful," Hartono, head of the local government conservation agency, told reporters, AAP reported.
Orangutans' habitats in Indonesia have been compromised by such palm oil plantations and illegal logging by timber companies, the Indo Asian News Service reported, citing a Nature Conservancy study which reported 750 orangutans killed by hunters in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo this year alone.
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