Orangutan

KehatiKu, a conservation program in Indonesian Borneo, pays citizen observers to document wildlife sightings and upload them via an app. Payments vary by species, with the highest rate, around $6, paid for verified orangutan sightings. Dedicated observers can make more than they would be paid at a full-time job. By…

For months, four infant orangutans lived in limbo in Thailand — not as pets, but as evidence. Confiscated in two separate trafficking cases, they were cared for at the Khao Pratubchang Wildlife Rescue Centre while investigators built their files. On Dec. 23, 2025, the babies finally came home: three Sumatran…

The Indonesian government said it has revoked the licenses of 28 companies for violating forestry regulations in provinces hit by devastating flooding in November. A rare equatorial cyclone, which caused widespread landslides across northern Sumatra, killed some 1,200 people and decimated the population of a critically endangered orangutan that was…

Inter-Agency Collaboration Enables the Release of Three Orangutans in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park , West Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia 16 January 2026 — The West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA West Kalimantan), the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park Authority (BTNBBBR), and Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI)…

NORTHERN SUMATRA, Indonesia. Welcome to jungle school—where orphaned orangutans are learning the basics for survival that they will need for life in the wild. At the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC) in Northern Sumatra, vets and biologists are rehabilitating orangutans who have been confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade...Read More

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CENTRAL TAPANULI, Indonesia — Since it was first described by scientists in 2017, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of the world’s rarest great apes, was believed to live only in the Batang Toru forest of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. But new findings reveal that the species (Pongo tapanuliensis) also inhabits a…

Spix’s macaws in the new Conservation Center at Sao Paulo’s Zoo in Sao Paulo, Brazil. — Reuters Tapanuli orangutans are the world's most endangered great ape. Fewer than 800 remain, all previously thought to be in their native Indonesia. But now an Indian zoo says it has one. An Indian…

In the run-up to International Orangutan Day on 19 August, JoJo – the first orangutan rescued back in 2009 by Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) in collaboration with the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), has, for the first time in more than 20 years, been able to…

Indonesian conservationist Rahayu Oktaviani, known for her work with Java’s silvery gibbon, received this year’s Whitley Award for achievements in grassroots conservation. The 50,000 British pound ($67,000) prize will be used to expand her foundation’s work carried out local communities near Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park in West Java province. Halimun-Salak…