{"id":227422,"date":"2025-10-20T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227422\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T18:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:00:07","slug":"the-tapanuli-orangutan-is-the-worlds-rarest-great-ape-with-fewer-than-800-left-in-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227422\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tapanuli Orangutan Is The World’s Rarest Great Ape, With Fewer Than 800 Left In The Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2017, scientists finally described what became the world\u2019s newest great ape species<\/a>: the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis). It should\u2019ve been cause for celebration, but at the same time, the new species became the most endangered great ape of them all.<\/p>\n

There are estimated to be fewer than 800<\/a> Tapanuli orangutans left in the wild, living in a small patch of forest in North Sumatra, Indonesia, known as the Batang Toru Ecosystem. It\u2019s thought their range on the island was once much larger<\/a>, but decreased by 60 percent<\/a> between 1985 and 2007 (and it\u2019s still declining).<\/p>\n

As a result of this reduction \u2013 which involved the conversion of their forest habitat for agricultural and industrial uses \u2013 alongside illegal killing, Tapanuli orangutans are considered as \u201cCritically Endangered\u201d by the IUCN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hope with designating a new species is that it will bring attention to its plight and provide a boost to conservation efforts, including additional protection for the species and its habitat, measures that can help the population increase.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not always as straightforward as that. \u201cSince it [the species] was described, not much has changed. You would think new species of orangutan, new species of great ape, the world would pull up its sleeves and decide to save it,\u201d Amanda Hurowitz, a senior director at nature advocacy group Mighty Earth, told Mongabay<\/a> in 2023. \u201cUnfortunately, the Tapanuli orangutan face many of the same threats they did in 2017.<\/p>\n

Those threats include illegal deforestation, hunting, and the trade of young orangutans, but there are also two major construction projects that could drive the species over the edge: a hydroelectric dam<\/a> and a gold mine, both of which encroach on the orangutans\u2019 habitat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

All this isn\u2019t to say there\u2019s no hope for the species. Just last month, scientists from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Foundation\u2013Orangutan Information Centre (YOSL-OIC) discovered<\/a> Tapanuli orangutans living in a forested peat swamp 32 kilometers (20 miles) away from their known range in Batang Taru, the first confirmed record of the species in this area.<\/p>\n

But to prevent Tapanuli orangutans from disappearing entirely will require a more concentrated effort than is currently taking place. The IUCN has estimated that without changing the approach to managing the species\u2019 conservation, the population is likely to decline by 83 percent over the next three generations, which last about 25 years<\/a> each.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem at the moment for the Tapanuli orangutan is the lack of collaboration between all the actors there,\u201d Serge Wich \u2013 a professor of primate biology at Liverpool John Moores University and part of the team that described the orangutans as a new species \u2013 told Inside Climate News<\/a> in August 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no action plan for this species based on the best possible knowledge out there, and that\u2019s really unfortunate,\u201d Wich continued. \u201cWe could, if everyone would sit together, try to make a solid plan that would hopefully safeguard the species. It\u2019s not too late for that \u2013 it\u2019s still possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the longer we do not do that, the more difficult the situation for the species will become.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2017, scientists finally described what became the world\u2019s newest great ape species: the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-227422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}