Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

22nd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Orangutan ; The people of a forest

The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) is one of the three species of orangutans. Critically endangered, and found only in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, it is rarer than the Bornean orangutan but more common than the recently identified Tapanuli orangutan, also found in Sumatra. The Sumatran orangutan is more arboreal than its Bornean cousin; this could be because of the presence of large predators, like the Sumatran tiger. It moves through the trees by quadrumanous locomotion and semibrachiation. But the true threats comes from logging (both legal and illegal), wholesale conversion of forest to agricultural land and oil palm plantations. Oil companies use a method of deforestation to re-use land for palm oil. This land is taken from the forest in which Sumatran orangutans live.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 05.2018
Date Uploaded: 10.2024
Photo Location: Bukit Lawang, Indonesia
Camera: NIKON D750
Copyright: © Alexander Siahaan