A young Sumatran orangutan has done something conservationists say had never been documented before, using a human-made canopy bridge to cross a public road in Sumatra.
The moment was captured by a motion-sensitive camera, according to conservationists on Monday. The video showed the orangutan pause at the forest’s edge, grip a rope and step out above the road.
“Then, with a cheeky glance to camera, he continues on his way,” the Sumatran Orangutan Society, or SOS, said in a social media post showing the video.
Conservationists said it was the first documented case of a critically endangered species using an artificial canopy bridge to cross a public road that had split 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.”
The bridge spans the Lagan-Pagindar road in Pakpak Bharat district, Siregar said. He said the road is a corridor connecting remote villages to schools, healthcare and government services, but it also cuts through prime orangutan habitat and splits an estimated 350 orangutans between the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve and the Sikulaping Protection Forest.
When the road was upgraded in 2024, the gap in the forest canopy widened and natural crossings for tree-dwelling wildlife disappeared.
“Development was necessary for people,” Siregar said. “But without intervention, it would have left orangutans trapped on either side.”
TaHuKah, SOS and local and national government agencies installed five rope canopy bridges between trees so arboreal animals could cross above traffic. Each bridge has a camera trap and was placed after surveys of orangutan nests, forest cover and animal movement.
While gibbons and long-tailed macaques have also been seen using the crossings, SOS told AFP: “this is a world first for Sumatran orangutans.”
“One orangutan has crossed, but a population of 350 still remains isolated,” SOS said in a statement on social media.
Conservationists said they waited two years for the first orangutan to use the bridge. Before that, camera traps recorded squirrels, langur monkeys, macaques and then gibbons.
The orangutan’s approach was gradual. Conservationists said it built nests near the bridge, stayed near its edges and tested 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.”
Conservationists said similar bridges have been used by orangutans elsewhere, but usually over rivers or on private industrial forest roads. They said this was the first time one had been documented on a public road.
Fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild, according to conservation groups. The same groups say there are about 800 Tapanuli orangutans and about 104,700 Bornean orangutans.
“These bridges allow orangutans to move, to mix, to maintain healthy populations,” Siregar said. “It reduces the risk of extinction.”
Read more from CBS.
