Climate change-fuelled storm decimated world's rarest great ape: Study
Climate change-fueled landslides wiped out nearly one in 10 of the world’s rarest great ape species on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, scientists said on June 10.
A single weather event last November pushed the Tapanuli orangutan, of which there are fewer than 800 left in the wild, even closer to extinction, according to a study published in the science journal Current Biology.
An estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans died as a result of mudslides triggered by heavy rains during Cyclone Senyar — about 11 percent of the total living in the region, or 7 percent of the estimated overall wild population.
The flooding killed more than 1,000 people.
