Orangutan protection

Illegal wildlife trade is a threat to many endangered species worldwide. It is also part of interrelated factors seriously threatening orangutans in Sumatra.

The reintroduction station in Jantho is located in the middle of the rainforest and is difficult to reach and only via off-road vehicle or motorcycle. The next village is far away. Therefore, the employees, like Damson, always stay for several days at a time at the station to pursue their valuable work.

From the day they enter the quarantine and rehabilitation station to the day they are released: the orangutans at the quarantine and rehabilitation station receive veterinary care throughout their stay. This happens through a standardised procedure.

In 2017 the journal Current Biology published an event that last occurred in 1933. In the paper an international team of scientists, including several members of our own Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme team, described a new species of Great Ape, the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), living the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra.
Sadly, with less than 800 individuals thought to remain in the wild the new species also became, overnight, probably the most endangered great ape species in the world. Nevertheless, we have been working to protect the orangutans in the Batang Toru forests since 2004, and continue to do all we can to secure the future of this Critically Endangered species and its habitat.

In the middle of the ongoing pandemic orangutan female «Edelweiss» presents her offspring to us in the rainforest of Jantho. The little guy is only a few months old, but already proffers new hope for the future of his species!