Orangutans face an existential crisis as palm oil expansion, logging, and fires destroy their rainforest habitat. Human-orangutan conflict causes severe welfare harms and threatens both subspecies.
Orangutans experiencing habitat loss suffer acutely and chronically. When forests are cleared, orangutans may be burned alive, macheted, or shot by plantation workers. Infants clinging to killed mothers are sometimes kept as illegal pets, experiencing profound psychological trauma from the loss of their mothers and subsequent isolation. Rehabilitation centers face the enormously difficult task of replacing 7-8 years of maternal learning in animals built for intensive social learning. Even successfully released orangutans face ongoing threats from habitat fragmentation. The welfare case for protecting orangutan habitat is overwhelming — preventing this suffering requires systemic change in commodity supply chains and land-use policy.