Orangutans News

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Paying people to see wildlife: Inside a $1-per-hectare conservation experiment in Borneo

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 May 2026

Conservationists fear fires could erase years of orangutan habitat recovery

Hans Nicholas Jong 8 May 2026
A Borneo orangutan.

See an orangutan, take a photo, earn some money: A viable conservation model?

Linnea Hoover 15 Apr 2026
Biruté Mary Galdikas. Photo courtesy of Orangutan Foundation International

Birutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying & defending orangutans, has died at 79

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Mar 2026

Palm oil clearing advances in Bornean orangutan habitat despite red flags

Hans Nicholas Jong 26 Mar 2026
Juvenile Sumatran orangutans like this are highly sought by traffickers. Image courtesy of Onrizal Onrizal.

Indonesia’s orangutan trafficking cases reveal need for a change in approach (commentary)

Onrizal Onrizal 12 Mar 2026
A man holds a chicken as he walks on log used as a makeshift bridge at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, Dec. 1.

Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 22 Jan 2026
Flood survivors use logs to cross a river in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on Dec. 2, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara.

Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods & landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Jan 2026
In this aerial photo taken using a drone, people are seen making their way on a muddy road at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo credit: AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster

Hans Nicholas Jong 6 Jan 2026
The presence of Sumatran elephants is intended to help transport wood left over from the flood.

Tsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster relief

Junaidi Hanafiah 19 Dec 2025

Tapanuli orangutan, devastated by cyclone, now faces habitat loss under zoning plans

Hans Nicholas Jong, Achmad Rizki Muazam 18 Dec 2025
A Bornean orangutan.

Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Dec 2025

New population of the world’s rarest great ape discovered

Juan Maza 15 Nov 2025

New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp

Junaidi Hanafiah 17 Oct 2025

Indonesia aims to redraw UNESCO site boundaries to allow geothermal projects

Hans Nicholas Jong 30 Sep 2025

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

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