Sumatran Orangutan

The orangutan is the only one of the great apes that lives outside the continent of Africa. They are also one of the most endangered apes. The word orangutan means ‘person of the forest’ in Malay. Orangutans are one of our closest relatives and we share more than 96% of our DNA with them. They have learned sign language and how to use some computers and tools, and in the wild show empathy and teach each other skills. There are three species of orangutan, the Bornean orangutan, the Tapanuli orangutan, and the one we will focus on, the Sumatran orangutan or Pongo abelii. Sumatran orangutans are a little bit smaller than Bornean orangutans, and have lighter orange-red fur. The distinctive throat pouches and cheek pads are also smaller on the Sumatran orangutan. Sadly, the Sumatran orangutan is also more endangered. The Sumatran orangutan lives in Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, though they only live in the northern part in lowland tropical forests. They live almost completely in the trees; females will almost never touch the ground and males do so infrequently. Orangutans are not very social animals, though the Sumatran orangutans are a bit more social than the Bornean orangutans, most likely because they will often gather in groups around trees with a lot of fruit and are not very territorial. Other than this they are mostly solitary except for when females have offspring. They spend most of the day slowly searching for food, and at night they will make a nest out of branches to sleep in.

All three species of orangutans are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN red list. Sumatran orangutans used to live all over Sumatra, but now only live in the northern part. There are 9 known populations of Sumatran orangutans; only seven of which have more than 250 animals, and only three of those have more than 1,000 individuals. The main reasons the Sumatran orangutan is endangered is deforestation, forest fires, development, and wildlife trafficking. Because Sumatran orangutans depend on high quality forests, deforestation is a big problem for orangutans. Lots of forest is lost to make room for oil palm plantations and other forms of development, like roads. Another problem facing the forests is fires. There have been a lot of fires in the area, many of which are set on purpose, to clear land for agricultural development. This is not only harmful to the forest, but is also horrible for orangutans who are often not fast enough to escape the fires. Another problem threatening Sumatran orangutans is the wildlife trade, as some are captured and kept as pets, and some are hunting for food. Even a little bit of hunting is bad because orangutans have babies so infrequently. Even 1% of females being threatened by hunting would move orangutans irreversibly closer to extinction. Because of all this there are only about 14,000 Sumatran orangutans left.