Orangutan

767 individuals made up the entire species of Tapanuli orangutans in 2019, according to an estimate. (Image credit: Nature Picture Library via Alamy) A single climate-change-fueled cyclone killed 7% of Tapanuli orangutans ‪—‬ the world's rarest great apes ‪—‬ in just four days last year, new research reveals. The study…

JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI...Read More

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time using a human-made canopy bridge to cross a public road on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, conservationists said Monday. Rapid development has been shrinking the jungle habitat of the critically endangered species, and fatal conflicts with people…

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…