Conservationists have captured the first footage of a critically endangered Sumatran orangutan using a canopy bridge to cross a road in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The bridge was built in 2024 over the Lagan-Pagindar road in the Pakpak Bharat district, which had become a barrier for wildlife.
The environmental organisation Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa (TaHuKah) and the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) installed the bridge after the road split the local orangutan population into two groups. Natural crossing was deemed impossible for wildlife, according to TaHuKah director Erwin Alamsyah Siregar.
For two years, camera traps monitored the bridge, capturing other species such as black giant squirrels, long-tailed macaques, and agile gibbons, but no orangutans until now. Helen Buckland, chief executive of SOS, described the team's reaction as 'cries of delight' when the young male orangutan was finally filmed crossing.
The orangutan is seen edging onto the bridge, pausing halfway to look down at the road and then at the camera, before proceeding into the Sikulaping protection forest. The species, which spends over 90% of its time in the forest canopy, is a keystone species and faces threats from habitat fragmentation.
With only 14,000 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild, the successful crossing offers hope for the species' survival. Franc Bernhard Tumanggor, head of the Pakpak Bharat district, said: 'Witnessing a Sumatran orangutan confidently crossing that bridge is living proof that we need not sever the forest’s lifeline in order to build our communities’ own.'
