December in the forest

It's been a busy month in the buffer zone of the Leuser Ecosystem in North Sumatra. Our camera traps have captured amazing footage of a variety of species, some of which are Critically Endangered. For the first time, we captured footage of a female Sumatran orangutan walking along the ground. Orangutans are specially adapted to be arboreal, or tree dwelling, and rarely come to the ground; Sumatrans less so than their Bornean counterparts. Within the vicinity of our camera traps are multiple oil palm plantations that have replaced forested corridors wildlife need to travel. We hope this female got to her destination safely.

We also obtained footage of a pair of White crowned hornbills, regular visitors to the area in which we have our camera traps. Last month they chose to fly down and eat a frog lunch directly in front of our camera and this month they returned. Here's last months' incredible footage that we were very excited to get.

While on patrol the ranger team has been finding plenty of evidence of Malayan sun bears. Occasionally we're lucky enough to capture grainy images of them in our camera trap footage and this month didn't disappoint.

We also captured footage and images of Porcupine, Pig-tailed macaques, Long-tailed macaques, Civets, Thomas leaf monkeys and Lesser mouse-deer. The biodiversity in the Leuser Ecosystem is unbelievable and we look forward to sharing more footage with you in 2019. Happy new year everyone!