Before deadly landslides and floods struck about two weeks ago, ranger Amran Siagian, 39, often encountered Tapanuli orangutans on a hill near Sipirok in South Tapanuli, North Sumatra. Siagian, who has worked at the Orangutan Information Center (OIC) for at least five years, recalls the animals visiting farms to eat durian and other fruits. After the cyclone-driven landslides and floods, however, the orangutans have disappeared.
The storms have killed 962 people and left 291 missing, and also caused about 200 deaths in southern Thailand and Malaysia. Siagian said the animals “must have moved away, further and further away. I could no longer hear their voices.”
Local officials and environmental groups say deforestation tied to mining and logging intensified the floods’ effects. In hard-hit Sipirok, observers found large trees felled, and Siagian said a company had been logging there for at least a year. Deforestation was already harming orangutans by fragmenting the canopy they rely on to travel from branch to branch.
OIC founder Panud Hadisiswoyo estimates about 760 orangutans live in the Tapanuli region. The World Wildlife Fund says roughly 119,000 orangutans live across Indonesia and Malaysia. Siagian warned that without government intervention and action against widespread deforestation, the orangutans in the area could face local extinction.
