Indonesia's wildfires have heaped more misery on orangutans, a species already endangered by shrinking habitat. Fires flare up across the dry season, often lit to clear land for plantations and then escaping control through carbon-rich peat soil. Orangutans caught in the smoke can suffer lung damage and burns, or simply lose the forest that fed them. Rescuers from local groups, working alongside government teams, have been heading into threatened forest to pull the animals out. The job is dangerous, at times involving walks through active fire lines to reach an ape stranded on a shrinking patch of ground. Animals brought out are examined for smoke inhalation and burns, then moved to safer habitat or rehabilitation centers. Each rescue takes time and money, and calls for help multiply as the fires do. Conservationists point out that repeated fire seasons, stacked on habitat loss, keep grinding away at the species' long-term odds.