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Concern as Orangutan Seen Roaming Indonesia Coal Site

This screen grab taken from video released by Ahmad Baihaqi shows a critically endangered orangutan walking in a coal mine in Borneo's East Kutai regency of East Kalimantan province on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Ahmad Baihaqi / AFP)
This screen grab taken from video released by Ahmad Baihaqi shows a critically endangered orangutan walking in a coal mine in Borneo's East Kutai regency of East Kalimantan province on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Ahmad Baihaqi / AFP)
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Concern as Orangutan Seen Roaming Indonesia Coal Site

This screen grab taken from video released by Ahmad Baihaqi shows a critically endangered orangutan walking in a coal mine in Borneo's East Kutai regency of East Kalimantan province on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Ahmad Baihaqi / AFP)
This screen grab taken from video released by Ahmad Baihaqi shows a critically endangered orangutan walking in a coal mine in Borneo's East Kutai regency of East Kalimantan province on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Ahmad Baihaqi / AFP)

Footage of a seemingly confused orangutan roaming the desolate site of an Indonesian coal mine, meters from excavators, has sparked renewed concern about the future of the critically endangered species.

The images, taken last month by a local resident and verified by AFP, are from the same province on Borneo island where Indonesia is building its new capital, a project environmentalists fear will endanger animal habitats in Asia's last great rainforest.

Indonesia has one of the world's highest deforestation rates, with commodities mining a key driver, but it is also one of only two places in the world where orangutans are still found, along with Malaysia.

The footage, which went viral on Indonesian social media, shows the male orangutan roaming across a chasm of sand streaked with white and black rocks, dug into land still surrounded by vegetation.

"Humans are sometimes too greedy. I hope God won't punish us," read one comment on the video, which racked up tens of thousands of views across YouTube and TikTok.

Locals standing on a bluff overlooking the site filmed the creature as it meandered metres from a digger that was seemingly oblivious to its presence.

Ahmad Baihaqi, who filmed the images, said a group of locals had been watching activity at the mine site when they spotted the primate.

"I felt bad because he looked so confused," the 22-year-old driver told AFP.

"He was alone and looked lost, he didn't know where to go because the forest was disappearing."

The sighting took place in East Kalimantan, where Indonesia is building its multi-billion-dollar capital city Nusantara at breakneck speed.

- Habitat disturbed -

Although the coal mine is a nine-hour drive from the construction site, the images renewed doubts about government claims that economic activity in the province is not affecting endangered animals.

Local environmentalist Mappaselle of the Balikpapan Coastal Working Group, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said the footage was clear evidence of that impact.

The orangutan sighting "was definitely because their habitat has been disturbed and is getting smaller," he said.

"Our endangered wildlife could go extinct," he warned.

"It's a natural wealth from God to us on Earth. If wildlife goes extinct, humans have failed in our job to protect nature."

All three species of orangutan are considered critically endangered, though estimates of the number left in the wild vary considerably.

Ari Wibawanto, head of the local conservation agency which sits under Indonesia's environment ministry, told AFP its officials had located the 15-year-old wild orangutan and moved it to a protected forest area after the footage surfaced.

But he argued that it was natural for male orangutans to roam around.

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Varieties

Scientists: 'Bleak' Future for Seals Decimated by Bird Flu

(FILES) This photograph shows elephant seals on the Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands which are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean, on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph shows elephant seals on the Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands which are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean, on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)
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Scientists: 'Bleak' Future for Seals Decimated by Bird Flu

(FILES) This photograph shows elephant seals on the Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands which are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean, on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph shows elephant seals on the Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands which are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean, on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)

The world's largest species of seal has been devastated by bird flu, which has wiped out half of all breeding females at a key wildlife haven near Antarctica, scientists warned Thursday.

The remote island of South Georgia is the home of a majority of all southern elephant seals. Males of these blubbery giants can grow up to two meters (six feet seven inches) long, weigh nearly four tons (8,800 pounds) -- and have a distinctive elephant-trunk-like proboscis on their face that earned the mammals their name.

Bird flu arrived on South Georgia in 2023 during an outbreak that has seen the virus spread across the world like never before, killing millions of birds and infecting many mammals, including several humans.

Earlier this year, scientists warned that bird flu had sparked the worst die-off on record for southern elephant seals when it spread among a population on Argentina's coast in 2023, AFP reported.

In a study published in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, a UK team of researchers gave the first estimate for how hard South Georgia's seals have been hit.

"It paints a pretty stark and harrowing picture," Connor Bamford, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of the study, told AFP.

According to the last count in 1995, South Georgia is home to 54 percent of all southern elephant seals.

On the same day of the year in 2022 and 2024, the scientists used hand-launched drones to take images of the island's three biggest breeding beaches.

After bird flu arrived, the number of breeding females plummeted by 47 percent, a loss of around 53,000 seals, according to the study.

Many pups also died on the beach after being abandoned by their bird-flu-infected mothers.

Scientists at the breeding ground on the Valdes Peninsula along Argentina's coast have determined that 97 percent of elephant seal pups died either from being abandoned or contracting bird flu in 2023.

On the peninsula, an even higher rate of breeding females -- 67 percent -- were estimated to have been wiped out.

"If the South Georgia population responds similarly to the modelled outlook at Peninsula Valdes, the future is bleak," the authors of the new study said.

However, Bamford did not think the elephant seals would be pushed "close to extinction".

The South Georgia population is much larger -- numbering in the hundreds of thousands -- so is likely to be more resilient, he said.

"That being said, the impacts to this population will be felt for many years to come," he added.

For the Valdes seals, scientists have estimated that the aftermath of this bird flu outbreak will likely reverberate until the end of the century.

The researchers believe that the seals are transmitting the virus to each other via water droplets, Bamford said.

While elephants spend most of their time in the water, they breed in densely packed colonies on wide, sandy beaches.

"There are thousands of them together, all coughing and splattering," Bamford said, adding that the seals are also particularly "snotty".

The scientist called for "regular check-ups" on South Georgia's elephant seals.

Varieties

Solar Storms Delay the Launch of Blue Origin's Big New Rocket with Mars Orbiters for NASA

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is fueled for launch with NASA's EscaPADE mission, carrying two satellites to orbit Mars, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, November 9, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is fueled for launch with NASA's EscaPADE mission, carrying two satellites to orbit Mars, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, November 9, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
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Solar Storms Delay the Launch of Blue Origin's Big New Rocket with Mars Orbiters for NASA

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is fueled for launch with NASA's EscaPADE mission, carrying two satellites to orbit Mars, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, November 9, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is fueled for launch with NASA's EscaPADE mission, carrying two satellites to orbit Mars, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, November 9, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

Intense solar storms responsible for breathtaking auroras across the US delayed the launch of Blue Origin’s big new rocket Wednesday.

Already grounded by poor weather, the New Glenn rocket was poised to blast off in the afternoon with two Mars orbiters for NASA from Florida. But five hours before the targeted liftoff, it was called off because of the heightened solar activity, The AP news reported.

Worried about the possible impact of increased radiation on its Mars-bound spacecraft, NASA decided to postpone the launch until conditions improve. Officials said they would try again Thursday.

This will be only the second flight of a New Glenn rocket, which made its debut in January. At 321 feet (98 meters), it is considerably larger and more powerful than the New Shepard rockets that Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is launching from Texas with passengers.

Varieties

For First Time, Scientists See the Very Early Stages of a Supernova

An artist's impression shows a star exploding at the end of its lifecycle, called a supernova, in this handout image released by the European Southern Observatory on November 12, 2025. The star is located about 22 million light-years away from Earth in the galaxy NGC 3621. ESO/L. Calcada/Handout via REUTERS
An artist's impression shows a star exploding at the end of its lifecycle, called a supernova, in this handout image released by the European Southern Observatory on November 12, 2025. The star is located about 22 million light-years away from Earth in the galaxy NGC 3621. ESO/L. Calcada/Handout via REUTERS
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For First Time, Scientists See the Very Early Stages of a Supernova

An artist's impression shows a star exploding at the end of its lifecycle, called a supernova, in this handout image released by the European Southern Observatory on November 12, 2025. The star is located about 22 million light-years away from Earth in the galaxy NGC 3621. ESO/L. Calcada/Handout via REUTERS
An artist's impression shows a star exploding at the end of its lifecycle, called a supernova, in this handout image released by the European Southern Observatory on November 12, 2025. The star is located about 22 million light-years away from Earth in the galaxy NGC 3621. ESO/L. Calcada/Handout via REUTERS

The explosive death of a star - a supernova - is among the most violent cosmic events, but precisely how this cataclysm looks as it unfolds has remained mysterious. Scientists now have observed for the first time the very early stages of a supernova, with a massive star exploding in a distinctive olive-like shape, according to Reuters.

The researchers used the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope, or VLT, to observe the supernova, which involved a star roughly 15 times the mass of our sun residing in a galaxy called NGC 3621 about 22 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hydra. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

The shape of such explosions has been hard to nail down until now because of how rapidly they take place, so it took quick action with this supernova. The explosion was detected on April 10, 2024, around the time astrophysicist Yi Yang of Tsinghua University in China had landed on a long flight to San Francisco. Yang's formal request just hours later to aim the VLT at the supernova was granted.

The researchers thus were able to observe the explosion just 26 hours after the initial detection and 29 hours after material from inside the star first broke through the stellar surface.

What they saw was the doomed star surrounded at its equator by a preexisting disk of gas and dust, with the explosion pushing material outward from the stellar core to distort the star's shape into one resembling a vertical-standing olive. The explosion notably did not blow the star apart in a spherical shape. Instead, the explosion pushed violently outward at opposite sides of the star.

"The geometry of a supernova explosion provides fundamental information on stellar evolution and the physical processes leading to these cosmic fireworks," said Yang, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

"The exact mechanisms behind supernova explosions of massive stars, those with more than eight times the mass of the sun, are still debated and are one of the fundamental questions scientists want to address," Yang said.

Big stars like those live relatively short lives. This one, a type called a red supergiant, was about 25 million years old at the time of its demise. In comparison, the sun is more than 4.5 billion years old and has a few more billion years to go.

At the time it exploded, this star's diameter was 600 times greater than the sun. Some of the star's mass was blown into space in the explosion. The remainder is believed to have become a neutron star, a highly compact stellar remnant, according to study co-author Dietrich Baade, a Germany-based astrophysicist at the European Southern Observatory.

When a star exhausts the hydrogen fuel for the nuclear fusion occurring at its center, its core collapses, which then sends material blasting outward, penetrating the stellar surface and into space.

"The first VLT observations captured the phase during which matter accelerated by the explosion near the center of the star shot through the star's surface, the photosphere," Yang said.

"Once the shock breaks through the surface, it unleashes immense amounts of energy. The supernova then brightens dramatically and becomes observable. During a short-lived phase, the supernova's initial 'breakout' shape can be studied before the explosion interacts with the material surrounding the dying star," Yang said.

This shape, Yang said, offers clues about how the explosion was triggered at the heart of the star. The new observations seem to rule out some current scientific models of the explosion process, Yang said, as scientists refine their understanding of the deaths of massive stars.