JAKARTA, Indonesia — Conservationists have discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia — perhaps as many as 2,000 — giving a rare boost to one of the world’s most endangered great apes.
A team surveying forests on the eastern edge of Borneo island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a “substantial” number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy.
There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 90 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in neighboring Malaysia, where forests have been clear-cut and burned at alarming rates to make way for lucrative palm oil plantations.
Conservationists say the most immediate next step will be working with local authorities to protect the area and others that fall outside of national parks.
