Orangutans are critically endangered across Borneo and Sumatra due to deforestation. Individual welfare and population survival depend on connected forest habitat that allows movement, foraging, and social contact.
Individual orangutans in fragmented forests face chronic nutritional stress from reduced fruit availability, increased human conflict when crossing plantations, and the absence of the social learning opportunities that forest connectivity enables. Young males caught in plantations face capture, injury, or death. Habitat restoration and corridor creation provide welfare benefits by enabling natural ranging, social contact, and access to diverse food sources. The welfare case for protecting orangutan habitat is inseparable from their conservation - an isolated population in a small forest patch faces both welfare and viability threats.