A BRITISH animal charity has helped save the life of a baby orangutan found dumped in a filthy cardboard box and left out in the sun to die in Borneo.

The baby ape was so lifeless when a team from East Sussex-based International Animal Rescue (IAR) reached him that at first they thought he was dead.

Lying corpse-like with his arms folded across his chest, his grey flaking skin and lack of hair made him look “almost mummified” in his urine-soaked box.

IAR officials said the baby, who they named Gito, was found 105 miles from their orangutan rehabilitation base in West Borneo.

The baby ape was put on a drip and taken to the IAR clinic by motorbike in an arduous nine-hour journey.

IAR chief executive Alan Knight said: “It’s hard to stomach the shocking state Gito was in when we rescued him.

“Our team has seen a significant increase in the number of baby orangutans being kept as pets and some of them have only recently been taken from the wild.
“This is the result of the forest fires devastating Indonesia and leaving wild orangutans without food or shelter.

“Those that escape being burnt alive are left exposed and vulnerable, under threat of starving to death or being killed or captured by human beings.”