Five baby orangutans were discovered in a forest in Odisha, a state in eastern India, far from their natural habitat, sparking an investigation into how they arrived there. The animals were spotted in the Balasore district by local residents, who alerted forest officials. After receiving first aid, the orangutans were transported to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, the state capital, where they are currently in quarantine and under close observation. The orangutans were found in Ranakata, a proposed reserve forest in the Bhogarai block, near the border with the state of West Bengal. This area is mainly covered by casuarina trees and is not a dense forest. It is also close to a state highway, which has led officials to suspect that the animals may have been transported there by road rather than arriving naturally. The Odisha government has reportedly requested the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau of India to investigate the incident. Police, forest officials, and a special task force are working together to uncover the circumstances surrounding the orangutans' arrival. Officials believe the animals had been in the area for only two to three days. However, a search of the forest yielded no other orangutans or evidence of how they arrived. The young age of the orangutans has raised serious concerns. Orangutans are typically raised by their mothers for several years, learning essential survival skills. Female orangutans also reproduce very slowly, giving birth approximately once every eight years. The discovery of five young orangutans together, far from their natural habitat and without any adult supervision, has highlighted the potential dangers they face. Orangutans are not native to India. These critically endangered apes are found only in the wild in Indonesia and Malaysia. There are three known species—Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli—all of which are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Their populations have declined sharply due to deforestation, habitat loss, and hunting. The international trade in orangutans is banned under Cites, the global agreement on trade in endangered species, and they are also protected by Indian wildlife laws. Despite these protections, orangutans are still sometimes trafficked as exotic pets or for private collections. This is not the first time young orangutans have been found in India. In 2022, two baby orangutans were discovered near the border between Assam and Mizoram, and officials suspected they had been brought into the country from neighboring Myanmar.