Indonesia’s deadliest floods in decades have pushed the world’s rarest great ape closer to extinction, as scientists warn that vast swathes of forest critical to the survival of the Tapanuli orangutan have been destroyed by landslides and extreme rainfall.
Conservationists say the cyclone-driven floods and landslides that tore through parts of North Sumatra late last month did not just kill hundreds of people but also devastated the fragile habitat of the critically endangered species, which exists only in a small mountainous region of the island.
