Indonesia: Cyclone Kills 7% of Rare Tapanuli Orangutans
Researchers said the cyclone and landslides wiped out about 7% of the species and destroyed food and shelter in its remaining forest range.
- On Wednesday, a new report revealed that climate change-fuelled landslides killed at least 58 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans on Indonesia's Sumatra island.
- Rapid deforestation and extreme rainfall made hilly landscapes vulnerable to landslides, as Cyclone Senyar destroyed huge tracts of forest and killed more than 1,000 people in 2025.
- Research indicates the loss represents about 7% of the total Tapanuli population of fewer than 800, while humanitarian workers described the forest area as a "graveyard" for wildlife.
- Lead author Erik Meijaard of Borneo Futures stated, "This level of loss is substantial for a species," noting that ongoing habitat degradation and human-wildlife conflict increase extinction risks.
- Experts urged international partners to provide immediate biodiversity-recovery financing in Indonesia, emphasizing that preventing the first modern extinction of a great ape requires permanent protection of the Batang Toru ecosystem.
28 Articles
28 Articles
Cyclone Senyar Killed 7% of the World's Rarest Orangutans in Just Four Days, Study Finds
Researchers say climate change intensified the storm that triggered landslides across Indonesia's Batang Toru Ecosystem, causing a significant loss to the world's rarest great ape population.
Tapanuli orangutans – a species only scientifically recognized in 2017 – will become extinct if they continue to lose more than 1% of their population each year.
A storm accompanied by extreme rain and landslides has killed at least 58 of the world's fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans, the rarest of the three existing orangutan species, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the BBC reports. This means that about 7 percent of the known individuals have died at once. Researchers of the species had previously estimated that if the population decreases by even 1 percent a year, the Tapanuli would become extin…
Heavy rains that claimed the lives of hundreds of people in Indonesia late last year have also decimated a group of rare orangutans. Scientists conclude that at least 58 animals must have perished, about 7 percent of the total number of individuals of this subspecies. The Tapanuli orangutans on Sumatra were not recognized as a separate species until 2017. With only about 800 individuals in the wild, the animal immediately became the most endange…
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