Orangutan

The Indonesian company PT Mayawana Persada has shifted focus from clearing peatlands in western Borneo to planting acacia on previously cleared lands in defiance of a government order to restore damaged peatlands. The lands are home to the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), and any habitat loss pushes the…

An NGO is working with local authorities in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province to build canopy bridges for primates to safely cross roads that fragment their forest habitats. Pakpak Bharat district has seen rapid growth of new roads to improve communities’ access to schools and hospitals, with the trade-off being that…

"This is to the best of my knowledge the first published study to demonstrate an animal using a plant with known biomedical properties for the treatment of a wound" (Image credit: AFP Photo / SUAQ Foundation / Getty Images) What happened Rakus, a Sumatran orangutan, healed a wound on his…

Researchers say an orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant. It's the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild. In 2022, scientists in Indonesia observed an adult male orangutan pluck and chew up leaves…

Ten years since a landmark lawsuit over forest fires, the palm oil company at the center of the case has finally begun paying its $23 million fine in installments. The case against PT Kallista Alam (KA) was supposed to set an example for how the government is cracking down on…

Said Jaka Pahlawan, an oil palm plantation foreman, was killed on Sept. 30 while fighting a fire in Indonesia’s Tanjung Puting National Park, a key orangutan habitat. The 23-year-old worked for PT Kumai Sentosa, a plantation company that had been fined in 2019 by an Indonesian court over wildfires on…

Carbon-rich peatlands continue to be cleared and drained in an Indonesian protected wildlife reserve known as the “orangutan capital of the world,” with 26 kilometers (16 miles) of new canals dug so far in 2023, up from 9 km (5.6 mi) in 2022, according to an investigation by the advocacy…

A British animal welfare charity has announced the 2023 winners of their recently increased World Animal Day grant. Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) in Indonesia will receive much-needed funds from Gloucestershire-based Naturewatch Foundation to purchase a mobile veterinary clinic. Working as a legal partner to the government, JAAN rescues, rehabilitates…

The Norwegian state pension fund has recommended excluding a major Chinese hydropower developer from further investment, due to its association with a dam in Indonesia that threatens the world’s rarest great ape.The dam is being built by a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned multinational Power Construction Corporation of China Ltd. (PowerChina)…

Scientists designated the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) as a new species in 2017, and it was immediately noted as being the rarest and most threatened great ape with fewer than 800 individuals in western Indonesia.The IUCN estimated the apes’ population fell by 83% in recent decades, and the species continues…