JAKARTA, Indonesia — A Sumatran orangutan has been recorded in what conservationists said is the first documented case of the species using an artificial canopy bridge to cross a public road that had divided its habitat.
“This was the moment we had been waiting for,” Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of Indonesian conservation group Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, or TaHuKah, told the Associated Press. “We are very grateful that the canopy here provides benefits for orangutan conservation efforts.”
Rapid development has been shrinking the jungle habitat of the critically endangered species, and fatal conflicts with people have been increasing.
The fleeting scene, captured by a motion‑sensitive camera, showed a young Sumatran orangutan pause at the forest’s edge, grip a rope with deliberate care and step out into open air. Halfway across, it stopped, casting a glance down at the road below. Moments later, it crossed.
Siregar said that the bridge spans a vital corridor connecting remote villages to schools, healthcare and government services. But the road also cuts directly through prime orangutan habitat, splitting an estimated 350 orangutans into two isolated forest areas: the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve and the Sikulaping Protection Forest.
When the road was upgraded in 2024, it eliminated forest canopy and with it, natural crossings for tree‑dwelling wildlife.
TaHuKah, working with the Sumatran Orangutan Society, or SOS, and local and national government agencies, proposed a simple solution: rope bridges suspended between trees, allowing arboreal animals to cross above traffic.
Five canopy bridges were installed each with a camera trap, carefully positioned after surveys of orangutan nests, forest cover and animal movement. The structures were designed to support the orangutan’s weight — no small feat for the world’s largest tree‑dwelling mammal.
The program is closely monitored, with camera traps on every bridge and regular patrols to prevent forest encroachment. Conservationists hope more orangutans will follow the first pioneer.
They waited two years for the first orangutan to cross the bridge. Before, only smaller animals — squirrels, langur monkeys and macaques, followed by gibbons — used it.
The orangutan’s approach was slower, building nests near the bridge, lingering at its edges and testing the ropes over time.
“They observe,” Siregar said. “They don’t rush. They watch, they try, they retreat. Only when they’re certain it’s safe do they move.”
Then, one day, the orangutan crossed fully — a first not just for Sumatra, but also for the species globally on a public road, conservationists say.
Similar bridges have been used by orangutans elsewhere, but usually over rivers or on private industrial forest road. Conservationists say public roads — noisy, busy and unpredictable — pose a far greater challenge.
For orangutans, the stakes are high. Isolation leads to inbreeding, genetic weakening and eventual population collapse. Restoring connectivity gives them a chance to survive.
Once widespread across southern Asia, the animal now survives only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild.
Karmini and Syam write for the Associated Press.
