Critically Endangered
Sumatran orangutan
Pongo abelii
Sumatran orangutan is a primate in the family Hominidae (order Primates) — Pongo abelii, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Indonesia.
Appearance
Compared to the Bornean species, Sumatran orangutans are thinner and have longer faces. Their hair is longer and has a paler red color.
Male Sumatran orangutans grow to about 1.7 m (5.6 ft) tall and 90 kg (200 lb), while females are smaller, averaging 90 cm (3.0 ft) and 45 kg (99 lb).
Range and habitat
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.
As of 2017, approximately 82.5% of the Sumatran orangutan population was strictly confined to the northernmost tip of the island, in the Aceh Province. In the wild, Sumatran orangutans only survive in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), the northernmost tip of the island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It will also eat bird eggs and small vertebrates. In addition, orangutans use tools to eat fruit.
In crisis
While poaching generally is not a huge problem for the Sumatrans, occasional local hunting does decrease the population size. The species has been assessed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000. From 2000–2008 it was considered one of "The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates." A survey published in March 2016 estimates a population of 14,613 Sumatran orangutans in the wild, doubling previous population estimates.
The same study estimates a 20,552-square-kilometre (7,935 sq mi) occupied area for the Sumatran orangutans, of that only an approximate area range of 8,992 km2 (3,472 sq mi) harbors permanent populations. The former was determined to be more cost efficient for maintaining the wild orangutan populations, but comes with longer time scale of 10–20 years.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Sumatran orangutan is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Sumatran orangutan, Wikidata item Q543424. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
