Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, far from their natural habitat, prompting an investigation into how they got there.
Photos and videos widely shared online show the young monkeys sitting together on the forest floor, eating bananas, thousands of kilometers from the rainforests where they belong.
Orangutans are not native to India. The critically endangered monkeys are found in the wild only in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Odisha’s forest minister said investigators were looking into whether the animals were brought into the country by an international smuggling ring and abandoned near highways.
The orangutans were rescued early Tuesday morning in Balasore district after locals spotted them and alerted forest officials.
They were given first aid and then taken to the Nandankanan Zoological Park in the state capital Bhubaneswar, where they are being quarantined and monitored.
Balasore district forest officer Pratik Prakash Indalkar told the BBC that the animals could not have reached Odisha naturally and may have been transported there by road.
“Five animals were found in Ranakata, a proposed sanctuary in Bhogarai block, near the West Bengal border,” he said.
“The area is covered mainly by casuarina trees and is not densely forested. It is also close to the state highway.”
The Odisha government has also reportedly asked India’s Wildlife Crime Bureau to conduct an investigation. Police, forestry officials and a special task force are involved in the investigation.