Orangutans News

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Global brands join drive for deforestation-free palm oil in Indonesia’s Aceh

Hans Nicholas Jong 22 Aug 2025
Banner image of an adult and baby orangutan at Betung Kerihun National Park in Indonesian Borneo, by Sabar Minsyah via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

World Orangutan Day: Ongoing threats & habitat loss haunt these great apes

Kristine Sabillo 19 Aug 2025
An adult Sumatran orangutan

Orangutans make up for lost sleep with daytime naps, study finds

Carolyn Cowan 24 Jul 2025
A Bornean orangutan. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

A new report lists the world’s 25 most endangered primates. Most people have never heard of them.

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Jun 2025
A Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) hangs from the trees. Fewer than 100,000 orangutans remain on Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Orangutan habitat under siege as palm oil company clears forest in Borneo

Hans Nicholas Jong 29 Apr 2025
Ex-captive orangutans at Camp Leaky in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler

An interview with orangutan conservationist and advocate Gary Shapiro

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Apr 2025
A young orangutan grasps and hangs on to a woody liana.

As apes adapt to human disturbance, their new behaviors also put them at risk: Study

Charles Mpaka 24 Mar 2025

Global outcry as petitioners demand no mining expansion in orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Mar 2025

Surge in legal land clearing pushes up Indonesia deforestation rate in 2024

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Feb 2025

Coming to a retailer near you: Illegal palm oil from an orangutan haven

Hans Nicholas Jong 24 Jan 2025
An orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Indonesian company defies order, plants acacia in orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Jan 2025

Canopy bridges serve a lifeline for Sumatra’s tree-dwelling primates

Basten Gokkon 31 Oct 2024
Rinnie and Gary Shapiro in a peat swamp in Central Kalimantan. Photo credit: Rod Brindamour.

Orangutan conservation and communication: Gary Shapiro’s half-century journey from zoos to the wilds of Borneo

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Oct 2024

Hold my ointment: Wild orangutan observed healing wound with medicinal plant

Basten Gokkon 14 May 2024
A Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) hangs from the trees. Fewer than 100,000 orangutans remain on Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Indonesian company defies order, still clearing peatlands in orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 9 May 2024

Palm oil deforestation persists in Indonesia’s Leuser amid new mills, plantations

Hans Nicholas Jong 14 Mar 2024

Norway pension fund breaks with U.K. conglomerate Jardines over endangered orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 12 Mar 2024

Indonesian gold mine expanding in ‘wrong direction’ into orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 11 Mar 2024

Bid to mitigate gold mine’s impact on orangutans hit by stonewalling, data secrecy

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Feb 2024
Image by Dinesh Valke via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Freeing trees of their liana load can boost carbon sequestration in tropical forests

Mark Hillsdon 1 Feb 2024

Newly described tree species from Sumatra could be vital for threatened orangutans

Liz Kimbrough 28 Dec 2023
Bornean orangutans are threatened by habitat loss and individual killings. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Killings of Bornean orangutans could lead to their extinction

Madeline Reinsel 24 Nov 2023

Burn now, pay later: Fines trickle in from Indonesia’s crackdown on forest fires

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Nov 2023
Efforts to extinguish the fire around Sungai Buluh Kecil, in the Tanjung Puting National Park area, mid-September 2023.

Young firefighter killed battling inferno in Borneo orangutan habitat

Budi Baskoro 24 Oct 2023
An orangutan in Sabah, Borneo

Deforestation surges in hotspot of critically endangered Bornean orangutans

Hans Nicholas Jong 20 Oct 2023

Deforestation for palm oil continues in Indonesia’s ‘orangutan capital’

Hans Nicholas Jong 22 Sep 2023

World’s top sovereign fund latest to cut ties with dam in orangutan habitat

Hans Nicholas Jong 31 Jul 2023

Migrating orangutan males imitate locals to learn about food: Study

Basten Gokkon 19 Jul 2023
Mother and baby orangutans.

Orangutan ‘beatboxing’ offers clues about human language, study says

Liz Kimbrough 29 Jun 2023
A Bornean orangutan in Indonesia

Why did the orangutan cross the toll road to Indonesia’s new capital city?

Hans Nicholas Jong 27 Jun 2023

World’s newest great ape faces habitat loss, multiple threats: Will it survive?

Hans Nicholas Jong 14 Apr 2023
A female Tapanuli orangutan.

Saving the last Tapanuli orangutans

Lucia Torres 13 Apr 2023

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