Researchers Wait Two Years to Capture First-Ever Footage of Orangutan Crossing a Canopy Bridge

A Sumatran orangutan has been filmed by remote cameras using a canopy bridge in Indonesia, in what conservationists say is a world first for the species.

When a road was built through orangutan habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia, it divided the population and raised concerns that isolation could lead to inbreeding, health problems, and eventually extinction. The roughly 350 orangutans in the area were split into two groups, with one living in the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve and the other in the Sikulaping Protection Forest.

To try to fix this, the Sumatran Orangutan Society and Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa (TaHuKah), with government support, built a canopy bridge over the road. The aim was to give the animals a safe way to move between both sides of the forest again.

For two years, the Sumatran Orangutan Society and TaHuKah monitored the bridge using camera traps, watching and waiting to see if any orangutans would use it. Nothing happened at first, even though the structure was regularly checked.

Over time, the cameras began picking up other animals crossing. These included plantain squirrels and black giant squirrels. Later, several primates also started using the bridge, including long-tailed macaques, black Sumatran langurs, and agile gibbons. Then, after two years of waiting, an orangutan finally appeared.

The remote camera footage, recorded in the Pakpak Bharat district of North Sumatra, shows a young male moving slowly across the rope bridge. He carefully steps along the structure, pauses halfway, and looks around before glancing back toward the camera and continuing to the other side.

It is the first confirmed footage of a Sumatran orangutan using a wildlife bridge, and conservationists say it is an important moment for a population that could otherwise become functionally extinct if it remains isolated. Helen Buckland, chief executive of the Sumatran Orangutan Society, described the joyous reaction from the team when they saw the footage.

“You should have heard the cries of delight from the team,” Buckland tells The Guardian. “After two long years, it’s finally happened.”

Buckland adds: “Orangutans have a very slow life history, and are really prone to genetic bottlenecks.” This means a path connecting the two forest areas is crucial for the long-term survival of the orangutan community. If populations stay separated in small groups, they can become weakened through inbreeding until they are functionally extinct, surviving for now but heading towards long-term extinction.

Image credits: All photos courtesy of Sumatran Orangutan Society.