Climate wipes out 1 in 10 ape species

Climate change-fuelled landslides wiped out nearly one in ten of the world’s rarest great ape species on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, scientists said.

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A single weather event last November pushed the Tapanuli orangutan - of which there are fewer than 800 left in the wild - even closer to extinction, according to a study published in the science journal Current Biology.

An estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans died as a result of mudslides triggered by heavy rains during Cyclone Senyar - about 11% of the total living in the region, or seven percent of the estimated overall wild population.

The flooding killed more than 1000 people.