There Are Only 3 Orangutan Species Left on Earth

Orangutans are some of the most recognizable animals in Southeast Asia, known for their shaggy reddish hair, sharp intelligence, and lives spent almost entirely in the rainforest canopy. What many people don't realize is that "orangutan" isn't a single species. There are three, and every one of them is critically endangered.

World Orangutan Day, observed annually on August 19, exists specifically to draw attention to these three species and the rapidly shrinking forests they depend on to survive.

Why There Are Three Species, Not One

For decades, scientists believed orangutans came in just two varieties, Bornean and Sumatran, treated as subspecies of the same animal. That changed in November 2017, when genetic and physical studies identified a third, entirely distinct species: the Tapanuli orangutan. It was the first new great ape species described by science in nearly a century.

Here's a closer look at all three.

1. The Bornean Orangutan

Found across the island of Borneo, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, the Bornean orangutan is the most numerous of the three species, with a population estimated between 70,000 and 104,000 individuals. Even so, it's still classified as endangered, with numbers having fallen sharply over the past century.

Bornean orangutans live across a wide range of habitats, from lowland and peat swamp forests to montane forests at higher elevations. Compared to their Sumatran relatives, they're more likely to come down from the trees and move along the ground, and scientists further divide the species into three recognized subspecies based on the specific region of Borneo they inhabit.

2. The Sumatran Orangutan

Found only in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, the Sumatran orangutan is rarer than its Bornean cousin, with a population estimated at roughly 14,000 individuals. Their numbers have declined more than 80% over the past 75 years, a decline conservationists expect to continue without stronger intervention.

Sumatran orangutans tend to be more slender and paler in color than Bornean orangutans, with longer, silkier facial hair that gives them a somewhat bearded look. They're also highly arboreal, spending nearly all of their time in the treetops, and are known for using simple tools, stripping sticks to extract insects from tree bark, or holding large leaves overhead like makeshift umbrellas.

3. The Tapanuli Orangutan

The rarest and most recently identified of the three, the Tapanuli orangutan exists only in a small pocket of forest called the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra. With an estimated population of fewer than 800 individuals, it's considered the most endangered great ape on Earth.

Because its range is so limited and isolated, geographically cut off from other orangutan populations for an extremely long stretch of evolutionary time, even small amounts of habitat loss pose an outsized risk to the species' survival.

Why All Three Species Are Disappearing

Despite their differences, all three orangutan species face the same core threat: habitat loss. Orangutans can't survive outside of forest environments, and large-scale deforestation, driven by palm oil plantations, illegal logging, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure development, has steadily shrunk the land they depend on.

Wildfires tied to land clearing add another layer of danger, wiping out large stretches of forest, and orangutan populations, in a single event. A century ago, the total wild orangutan population across all species is estimated to have exceeded 230,000. Today, combined estimates for all three species fall well under half that number.

Why This Matters Beyond the Forest

Orangutans play an important ecological role as seed dispersers, helping regenerate the very forests they call home. Their decline is often described by conservationists as a warning sign for the broader health of Southeast Asia's rainforest ecosystems, since the pressures driving down orangutan populations, deforestation, land conversion, and fire, affect countless other species sharing the same habitat.

Conservation organizations have worked for decades on efforts ranging from protected habitat corridors to anti-poaching programs and sustainable agriculture initiatives, work that continues to determine whether all three species remain part of the wild world for future generations, or become a case study in how quickly a habitat can disappear.

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