Heartbreaking Moment Captured: “Don’t Let Them Take Me, Mum!” Tiny Baby Orangutan Desperately Clings to Tranquilized, Starving Mother During Heart-wrenching Rescue

This is the heart-breaking moment a tiny baby orangutan desperately clung to his mother moments after the starving ape had been tranquilized by rescue workers.

The fearful baby orangutan hugs its mother after she was tranquilized by animal rescue workers

Scared to leave its mother’s side, the baby ape clings on to her unconscious carer while workers rush to separate the two

The orangutan was tranquilized after it was found with its baby starving on a plantation in Borneo

The pair were struggling to find food having fled forest fires that destroyed their natural habitat

Both were clearly emaciated and starving to death. Here the mother’s leg and hip bones are clearly visible

Without the help of the International Animal Rescue (pictured), the two apes would likely have starved to death

Rescue workers used tranquilizer darts to prise the terrified pair from their home in a tree (pictured)

After being shot, rescue workers used netting to catch the orangutans as they fell from the tree

After being rescued in late January, they were transported back to the charity’s base in Ketapang

The pictures show the mother was so emaciated from lack of food her leg and hip bones are clearly visible.

Despite starving, the female orangutan was so fierce in her determination not to let rescuers near her baby it took three tranquilizer darts before she fell and landed safely in nets.

The baby orangutan, estimated to be aged two or three, appears terrified during the separation from its mother

After its mother was tranquilized, she released her grip from the tree and the pair fell to the ground

The International Animal Rescue warns forest fires in Borneo are threatening the livelihood of the species

Rescuers workers located the mother and father and camped out under the tree in which they were nesting

The pair were found badly starving on a plantation after villagers in Semanai, Simpang Tiga village complained that the Animals were eating their crops.

They were found on a plantation after villagers had complained that the Animals were eating their crops

Since being taken in by the charity, the orangutan mother has now started to produce breast milk for her baby

‘And we are expecting a long drought season again this year as a result of the El Nino, with the risk of more forest fires to come.

Rescuers say witnessing huge forest fires wiping out the orangutans’ habitat is almost ‘impossible to bear’