Watch the First Known Video of a Sumatran Orangutan Crossing a Human-Made Wildlife Bridge in the Treetops
A public road in Indonesia separates forests housing about 350 wild orangutans, among other animals. So, conservationists built several canopy bridges to prevent habitat fragmentation
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For the first time, a Sumatran orangutan has been filmed using a human-made wildlife bridge high in the trees. The video provides evidence that the critically endangered species will use such artificial structures, which can prevent them from staying sequestered.
“You should have heard the cries of delight from the team,” says Helen Buckland, CEO of the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), a charity based in England and Wales, to the Guardian’s Isaaq Tomkins.
A video posted on social media by SOS shows the young male making his way across the bridge in the province of North Sumatra. Partway through, he pauses for a few seconds before glancing back toward the camera. Then, he continues his journey across the ropes.
“For two years, we have watched and waited for this moment: an orangutan to use one of the canopy bridges to cross over the public road. This is it. The moment we have been patiently waiting for,” SOS writes in the post.
The treetop overpass stretches across the Pakpak Bharat district’s Lagan-Pagindar road, which runs through the habitat of about 350 wild orangutans and separates the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve from the Sikulaping Protection Forest. Fragmenting their home makes the animals vulnerable to inbreeding, which can lead to deformities and poor health, and eventually extinction.
But the road is necessary to humans. It connects isolated villages to health care, schools and government services, Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of the non-government organization Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa (TaHuKah), tells the Associated Press’ Niniek Karmini and Fadlan Syam. In 2024, road upgrades enlarged the opening in the forest canopy, making crossing impossible for arboreal wildlife.
“Development was necessary for people,” Siregar tells the outlet. “But without intervention, it would have left orangutans trapped on either side.”
So, TaHuKah, SOS and government agencies suggested rope bridges to connect trees. After experts surveyed orangutan nests, animal movement and forest cover, they built five of these wildlife bridges and added a camera trap to each.
Primates including gibbons, langurs and macaques have been spotted using the rope structures, according to an SOS statement. But finally, conservationists know that the world’s largest tree-dwelling mammal—the orangutan—will also traverse them.
Fun fact: How heavy are orangutans?
Wild adult females can weigh up to 120 pounds, and their male counterparts can weigh up to 220 pounds. Animals at zoos can be much heavier since they get lots of high-quality food.
Sumatran orangutans—one of three orangutan species—spend pretty much all their lives in trees. Females barely ever touch the ground, and males occasionally travel on the forest floor. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the creatures as “critically endangered,” with an estimated population of fewer than 14,000 individuals that is currently decreasing.
Most wild orangutans live in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Experts are also introducing animals that were confiscated as illegal pets. They’ve released more than 260 individuals near Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in the center of the island and Jantho Pine Forest Nature Reserve in the far north of the island.
Habitat fragmentation is one of the animal’s biggest threats. More generally, it’s “one of the greatest challenges in contemporary conservation,” Siregar tells Agence France-Presse.
Fortunately, “these canopy bridges demonstrate that human development and wildlife don’t have to be at odds,” SOS’s Buckland tells the outlet. “Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most effective.”
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