Sumatra 2026

A moment I will never forget 🥹

Carefully moving through dense bushes and branches, we quietly made our way deeper into the jungle, knowing we were being watched the whole time.

A baby orangutan looking at me curiously, just as closely as I had been watching him for the past hour. At one point, it almost felt like he was starting to trust us and even posing for my camera. At the same time, you could tell this family wasn’t used to humans, the warning sounds they made, made that very clear. He stayed connected to his mother, who was watching us from a few trees away. 

“Orang Hutan” means “human of the forest.” And in that moment, after following him through the jungle, it truly felt that way.

You can feel how close we are to them. Not just biologically, but in the way they look at you, how they move, and how they experience the world.

Orangutans now only live on Sumatra and Borneo, and their habitat continues to disappear due to deforestation and palm oil plantations.

I’m so grateful to have experienced this 🦧