World's only albino orangutan needs new home away from 'human threat'

The world’s only known albino orangutan needs to be relocated to a new home away from “threats posed by humans”, campaigners say.

Alba has been living at a rehabilitation centre for the past five months after being rescued from a village in Borneo.

The five-year-old orangutan cannot be safely returned to the wild because of health issues related to her albinism, according to the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation.

Her poor sight and hearing, as well as the likelihood of developing skin cancer later in life, means she can’t be released.  

Instead, the BOS wants to create a five-hectare "forest island" where Alba can live out the rest of her days in a more natural and less cramped environment.

“To ensure that Alba can live a free and fulfilling life we are making her a forest island home, where she can live freely in natural habitat, but protected from threats posed by humans,” the foundation said.

BOS hope to raise $80,000 needed to buy land for the special reserve and have appealed for help on social media.

“She is thriving under our care, but as a wild orangutan she deserves a forest home,” they say.

Alba, which means ‘white’ in Latin, was suffering from dehydration and a parasitic infection when she was rescued in April.

There are two species of orangutan - the Bornean and Sumatran - both are currently critically endangered, say the WWF.

Their forest habitat in Indonesia and Malaysia is rapidly disappearing, putting the future of Asia's only great ape in peril, they added.