Poaching and habitat loss have decimated Indonesia's orangutan population, but now coronavirus has emerged as another potential deadly threat to the critically endangered species.

While there have been no confirmed cases of transmission from humans to the fuzzy-haired apes, they share 97 percent of our DNA.

And staff at a rehabilitation centre in jungle-covered Borneo are not taking any chances.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has closed its doors to visitors and told staff to step up precautions to avoid passing on infection, including by wearing masks and protective gloves.

"There haven't been any confirmed cases of direct transmission, but it's caused other issues like a shortage of masks and disinfectant supplies for our orangutan caretakers," said foundation veterinarian Agus Irwanto.

For the apes, however, there hasn't been much change in their daily jungle jaunts.

"While the humans at our rehabilitation centres work hard to adjust to these new measures, the orangutans are going about their usual business," the foundation said.

Human-to-primate transmission fears are not limited to Indonesia.

France is taking precautions at its zoos, with caretakers keeping their distance from gorillas and chimpanzees.

Last month the forest-covered African nation of Gabon said it would stop allowing tourists to see its great apes over fears that humans could give them the virus.

The Ebola epidemic killed gorillas and chimpanzees as well as humans.

Remote control operation removes tiger's collar in India
New Delhi (AFP) April 4, 2020 - A delicate remote control operation to remove a tracking collar from a tiger on an epic 13-month trek through India has been carried out to avoid the device choking the animal.

The feline explorer, named Walker for the roughly 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) of terrain it covered, has been tracked by Indian wildlife experts through forests, farms, highways and villages.

It was fitted as a three-year-old with a radio collar and followed by GPS since February last year.

A tortuous trek in search of a mate and prey took the tiger on a winding route from one animal sanctuary in the western state of Maharashtra to another about 1,300 kilometres away, according to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

But the collar's battery drained and the tiger began to outgrow the device, presenting a choking hazard that prompted conservationists to remove it last week using a "remote drop-off option".

"The animal has achieved all the skills to survive and avoid humans," a report by WII said, and attempts would now be made to track the male tiger by camera.

A video of the operation, which has been widely viewed on social media, shows Walker laying on the ground before jumping up in surprise as the collar suddenly pops off.

The tiger was one of three cubs born in the state's Tipeshwar wildlife sanctuary in 2016.

It has since settled in Dnyanganga sanctuary in the same state, about 1,300 kilometres away.

The animal has roamed virtually unseen by humans during its 13 months on the move -- a feat WII experts said showed how the tigers cleverly "traverse through human-dominated landscapes without any conflict".

India is estimated to be home to about 70 percent of the world's tigers, which are considered an endangered species.

The government said in July last year that since 2015 the tiger population had increased 30 percent to almost 3,000.

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Hungry and in chains, Thailand's tourist elephants face crisis
Bangkok (AFP) March 31, 2020
Underfed and chained up for endless hours, campaigners warn many elephants working in Thailand's tourism sector may starve, be sold to zoos or shifted into the illegal logging trade as the coronavirus decimates visitor numbers. Before the virus, life for the kingdom's estimated 2,000 elephants working in tourism was already stressful, with abusive methods often used to 'break them' into giving rides and performing tricks at money-spinning animal shows. With global travel paralysed the animals ar ... read more