SOCP Research Stations
SOCP knows that long-term monitoring and studies of orangutans and their habitat are vital to understanding the apes’ ecology and conservation needs. This important work is being completed by SOCP at various research stations throughout the island of Sumatra. The Batang Toru Monitoring Station and the Sikunder Monitoring Station are in the forests of North Sumatra. SOCP’s well-known peat swamp station is Suaq Balimbing in the province of Aceh. It was in the Sauq forests that Secret Lives of Orangutans was filmed. SOCP also conducts extended post-release monitoring of the reintroduced Sumatran orangutan population at the Jantho Nature Reserve in northern Aceh.
Batang Toru Station
The Batang Toru Monitoring Station - Camp Mayang is located in the west Batang Toru forest block. It is surrounded by a mix of hill dipterocarp, submontane, and upland heath forest. This station is unique in that it is the only orangutan monitoring station in an upland forest setting, and the only station focused on studying the Tapanuli orangutan.
Sikundur Station
The Sikundur Monitoring Station is located in the Langkat District of North Sumatra in the Leuser Ecosystem. It consists of primarily lowland dipterocarp and alluvial tropical rainforest habitat. This is the first orangutan research site on the eastern edge of the Leuser Ecosystem, a region that has been largely ignored by researchers in the past. The orangutan population here offers a unique opportunity to evaluate how the apes are capable of coping with habitat loss and degradation. The study conducted here is the first of its kind in Sumatra.
Suaq Balimbing Station
Suaq Balimbing is a biodiversity monitoring station located in the Kluet swamps in Aceh. It is the only site in Sumatra where biologists are monitoring orangutans in a peat swamp forest setting and it is the site of a major ongoing research program. Many new discoveries regarding the social structure and ranging behavior of orangutans has resulted from this work. It was researchers from this station who observed adult male orangutan Rakus healing his own wound with medicinal plants. Suaq remains the only forest in Indonesia where orangutans have regularly and routinely been observed making and using primitive tools, which they do on an almost daily basis. This forest is also the setting of the Netflix documentary Secret Lives of Orangutans.
Join us in supporting the vital research and monitoring work of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). Your donations are greatly appreciated.