Scientists find new population of orangutans

Conservationists discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia – perhaps as many as 2,000 – giving a rare boost to one of the world’s most critically endangered great apes.

A team surveying forests nestled between jagged, limestone cliffs on the eastern edge of Borneo island counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a “substantial” number of the animals, said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist at the US-based The Nature Conservancy.