Orangutan mother substitutes in Sumatra

First prize, nature, stories | Saving Orangutans | Alain Schroeder, Belgium

Mother-substitutes carry orphaned orangutans to a forest school where they will teach them to climb trees, at SOCP quarantine centre in Sibolangit, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on 22 January 2019 

Indonesia’s orangutans are under severe threat from the ongoing depletion of the rainforest. Sumatran orangutans, which once ranged over the entire island of Sumatra, are now restricted to the north and critically endangered

Photograph: Alain Schroeder/for National Geographic