A tapanuli orangutan, pictured in Sumatra, is the world’s rarest great ape. Orangutans are critically endangered and have suffered significant habitat loss, mostly due to deforestation.
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- Hostile Planet
See orangutans, jaguars, and other jungle animals in their natural habitats
As deforestation has slashed forests around the world, many jungle animals struggle to survive.
In 2018, a comprehensive study laid bare the reality for Earth’s orangutans: Since 1999, we’ve lost about half of them. That’s some 150,000 orangutans, gone from the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra—their only wild habitat.
Orangutans are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the global authority on the conservation status of species. The treetop-dwelling mammals are one of dozens of jungle species, including the Sumatran tiger and the Javan slow loris, that share that same grim distinction: Their populations having plummeted so significantly that they face a high threat of going extinct in the wild.
A major reason is that jungle animals are losing their homes. In 2017 alone, Earth lost 39
