{"id":363735,"date":"2025-12-22T13:59:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363735\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:59:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:59:30","slug":"sumatras-deadly-floods-may-have-pushed-a-rare-ape-closer-to-the-brink-of-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363735\/","title":{"rendered":"Sumatra\u2019s Deadly Floods May Have Pushed a Rare Ape Closer to the Brink of Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three weeks after a cyclone ripped through northern Sumatra, killing more than 1,000 people, the Indonesian region remains devastated. Towns are cut off and more than 100,000 people have been displaced<\/a>. Now, a new analysis reveals that the damage extended into the habitat of a critically endangered orangutan species, too, likely killing a significant portion of the remaining population.<\/p>\n

The Tapanuli orangutan is the world\u2019s rarest great ape, with fewer than 800 thought to remain in the wild. It lives across three isolated patches of mountainous forest about the size of Los Angeles that are being eroded by construction of a hydroelectric dam<\/a>, a gold mine, palm oil plantations and other encroachments.<\/p>\n

An initial assessment of satellite imagery has revealed widespread flood damage and landslides across the forbidding terrain, meaning \u201cthat a single extreme weather event has likely pushed the Tapanuli orangutan closer towards population collapse,\u201d the analysis said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The preprint assessment was conducted by an international team of scientists and was published this week<\/a>. It has not yet been peer reviewed. Based on the extent of damage within the forest, the scientists estimate at least 30 orangutans could have been killed and possibly many more, dealing a heavy blow to the species\u2019 long-term chances of survival.<\/p>\n

Cyclones rarely form along the equator, and a rapid attribution study said that climate change has been increasing extreme rainfall<\/a> in the region. One weather station in Sumatra recorded nearly 40 inches of rain over six days, according to the orangutan study.<\/p>\n

Yet scientists, activists and government officials say the devastation was likely exacerbated by widespread deforestation, which stripped the land of its capacity to absorb rainfall and retain soil. From 2001 to 2024, North Sumatra province lost 28 percent<\/a> of its tree cover, some 6,200 square miles in all, according to Global Forest Watch. Images across the area show massive piles of logs jamming rivers after the floods, evidence of clearing upstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a sea of logs,\u201d said Panut Hadisiswoyo, a co-author on the analysis and founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, a conservation group in Sumatra.<\/p>\n

The same deforestation and industrial activity that have driven the Tapanuli orangutan to the brink, then, seems to have contributed to the disaster now caused by a rare, climate-fueled cyclone.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Indonesia\u2019s environment ministry suspended operations at industrial activities in the area where the Tapanuli orangutan lives, among the hardest hit by the floods. A hydroelectric dam being built in the middle of the ape\u2019s habitat is among the projects affected by the suspension. The ministry said<\/a> forest clearing by the dam and two other operations had worsened flooding.<\/p>\n

The analysis of satellite imagery shows the damage also extended deep into the forest, even in areas with little human activity.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Tapanuli orangutan is threatened by a Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Credit: Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari and Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme<\/p>\n

The team of scientists used images from before and after the storm to estimate the extent of forest loss within the largest block of the orangutan\u2019s habitat, an area home to nearly 600 of the 800 Tapanulis. The pictures show once solid green landscapes, now gashed with brown streaks\u2014soil exposed by landslides and riverbanks stripped bare. Clouds covered about a third of the area, but of the parts the scientists could see, nearly 6 percent of the forest appears to have been lost.<\/p>\n

The scientists then compared the damage with data they collected on the population density of Tapanuli orangutans across their habitat to estimate how many individuals were likely affected. The team determined that an estimated 33 orangutans could have been killed in the areas they could see. If similar damage occurred in the cloud-covered regions, it would mean more than 50 orangutans could have perished. Already, one orangutan\u2019s body has been recovered from debris downstream.<\/p>\n

If the apes faced no other threats, their population could likely recover over a period of years, said study co-author Serge Wich, a professor of primate biology at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom. Yet the species was already under grave threat from habitat encroachment by industrial activity and conflict with humans, and \u201cit\u2019s the combination of all the threats that makes this more worrying,\u201d said Wich, who was part of a team that helped identify the Tapanuli orangutans as a distinct species.<\/p>\n

Already, scientists said, Tapanuli orangutans had been restricted to between 2 percent and 5 percent of their historical range. Now, an additional 5 percent to 10 percent of their current habitat has been stripped of the trees they depend on for food, shelter and movement.<\/p>\n

\"AA particularly damaged section of the Batang Toru ecosystem shows extensive forest loss from landslides and flooding after a recent tropical cyclone. Scientists believe dozens of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans were killed.<\/p>\n

Andine Fahira Lubis, advocacy officer with WALHI North Sumatra, an environmental group, said the government should use the pause it has ordered in industrial operations to reassess its management of the area. Yet she said her organization\u2019s local contacts have reported that industrial operations continue despite the government orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think everything is just performative,\u201d Lubis said of the government ministries\u2019 announcements.<\/p>\n

Neither the Indonesian Environment Ministry nor the Directorate General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation, which manages wildlife, replied to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Amanda Hurowitz, senior director at Mighty Earth, a global advocacy group, said the government could use the tragedy unleashed by the disaster to reassess its forest management in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like a degraded landscape,\u201d Hurowitz said of the satellite imagery. \u201cThe species is so much closer to extinction potentially that the whole thing needs to be rethought. And this pause that the government has enacted, it\u2019s an opportunity to get things right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadisiswoyo, with the Orangutan Information Centre, said the damage is a reminder of how closely intertwined the fate of the orangutan is with the humans surrounding it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans live in the lowlands that depend on the healthy forest and healthy ecosystem,\u201d Hadisiswoyo said. \u201cWhen the ecosystem of the forest is not healthy, human lives are at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While storms have caused flooding before, Hadisiswoyo said, they have never caused so much devastation.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting the orangutan is a must,\u201d he said. \u201cProtecting orangutans actually protects the lives of humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

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Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNicholas Kusnetz\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, New York City<\/p>\n

Nicholas Kusnetz is a reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN, he worked at the Center for Public Integrity and ProPublica. His work has won numerous awards, including from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and has appeared in more than a dozen publications, including The Washington Post, Businessweek, The Nation, Fast Company and The New York Times. Nicholas can be reached on Signal at nkusnetz.15<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly three weeks after a cyclone ripped through northern Sumatra, killing more than 1,000 people, the Indonesian region…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-363735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}