We examined mitochondrial DNA control region sequences of 73 Kinabatangan orang‐utans to test the hypothesis that the phylogeographical structure of the Bornean orang‐utan is influenced by riverine barriers. The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary contains one of the most northern populations of orang‐utans ( Pongo pygmaeus ) on Borneo and is bisected by the Kinabatangan River, the longest river in Sabah. Orang‐utan samples...

Behavioural observations suggest that orang‐utans are semi‐solitary animals with females being philopatric and males roaming more widely in search of receptive partners, leading to the prediction that females are more closely related than males at any given site. In contrast, our study presents evidence for male and female philopatry in the orang‐utan. We examined patterns of relatedness and parentage in a wild orang‐utan popu...

We investigated the genetic structure within and among Bornean orang‐utans ( Pongo pygmaeus ) in forest fragments of the Lower Kinabatangan flood plain in Sabah, Malaysia. DNA was extracted from hair and faecal samples for 200 wild individuals collected during boat surveys on the Kinabatangan River. Fourteen microsatellite loci were used to characterize patterns of genetic diversity. We found that genetic diversity was high in...