Hidden Orangutan Population Discovered

As many as two thousand orangutans have been found in a remote Indonesian forest, raising hopes for the great ape's future. Any discovery of a new population of an endangered species is good news, but this one's extra-good.

Humans and the great apes — orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees and gorillas — last shared a common ancestor 13 million years ago. That's an evolutionary eye-blink. And as Wired Science has covered before, the great apes share many qualities, from self-awareness to emotion, that people consider fundamental to personhood. The Spanish government may even grant them human rights.

With their entire species in danger of disappearing, the Nature Conservancy's finding of new orangutans is a bit like learning that a sick cousin's health has improved. The situation is still grave, as most of the world's 50,000 orangutans live in Malaysia and Indonesia, where rain forests are being rapidly cut down and replaced by palm oil plantations. But at least there's hope.

"That we are still finding new populations indicates that we still have a chance to save this animal," said Paul Hartman, leader of the Orangutan Conservation Service Program, to the Associated Press.