Research

  • Tina Photo by Abuk
  • Ethan collecting a morning sample for the gut microbiome project

We have been conducting year-round research on wild orangutans since we started The Tuanan Orangutan Research Project in 2003. Our team collects full-day focal animal follows each day on several individuals. Our focal animal study population consists of over 120 identified individuals and over 100,000 hours of focal animal data. Our constant presence at the research station serves as a conservation tool for protecting one of the largest wild populations of orangutans in the world. In addition, our project provides a steady income for 19 households in the village of Pasir Putih, providing alternative livelihoods for our research team. Since 2003, we have published over 80 scientific articles focusing on the orangutans of Tuanan. In addition to research on orangutans, we also have several other research projects including biodiversity monitoring with camera traps, nutritional landscape monitoring, long-term patterns of weather and plant phenology, bird ecology, the effects if fires on primate behavior and biodiversity, and peatland fire ecology. Click here to see our areas of focus https://coreborneo.com/areas-of-focus/ and publications .