Four days of extreme rain killed 7% of world's rarest orangutans, study says

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Jakarta: Four days of extreme rain in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province in November 2025 killed 58 Tapanuli orangutans, wiping out roughly seven percent of the world's rarest great ape population.

 According to a new study published in Communications Biology, the catastrophic, consecutive rainfall triggered massive landslides across the isolated Batang Toru ecosystem. This single weather event represents a devastating blow to the species, which has an estimated total population of less than 800 individuals left in the wild.

Researchers found that the extreme precipitation caused significant soil failures in the primates' primary habitat, destroying critical canopy areas and burying many of the animals under debris. 

While habitat fragmentation and human encroachment have long been the primary concerns for conservationists, this research highlights a growing and immediate threat: extreme weather events intensified by climate change. 

The Tapanuli orangutan was only identified as a separate species in 2017, but it is already considered the most endangered great ape on Earth. Scientists warn that for such a small, isolated population, one localized natural disaster can now push the entire species.