Bunguran Island () or just Bunguran is the main island of the
Middle Natuna Archipelago, which is part of the
Riau Islands Province
The Riau Islands () is a province of Indonesia consisting of a group of islands located in the western part of the country. It was established in 2002 after being separated from the neighboring Riau Province. The capital of the province is ...
in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is also called Great Natuna Island (''Pulau Natuna Besar'').
The area of Bunguran is with a coastline of .
The highest point is
Mount Ranai at . The island had a population of 58,820 inhabitants according to the official estimate for mid 2023. The principal settlement is
Ranai. The island can be reached by scheduled air services via
Ranai Airport.
The island is home to three
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of non-human
primate
Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...
s: the slow loris (''
Nycticebus coucang''), the long-tailed macaque (''
Macaca fascicularis
The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, is a Cercopithecinae, cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. As a Synanthrope, synanthropic species, the crab-eating macaqu ...
''), and the endemic animal on Bunguran Island which is threatened with extinction is the Natuna Island surili (a.k.a. Natuna pale-thighed surili, ''
Presbytis natunae''). Two subspecies of mouse deer are also endemic to Bunguran Island, namely the greater mouse-deer (
''Tragulus napu bunguranensis'' ) and the lesser mouse-deer ( ''
Tragulus kanchil everetti'' ). A small number of wild goats live on the island as well as sea birds. Over 360 species of bird have been recorded on the island.
There is a large
mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
in the north-east corner of the island. The
Grand Mosque of Natuna was built over two years from 2007 to 2009.
On December 18, 2018, Indonesian Armed Forces opened a naval military base with over 1,000 personnels on Bunguran Island.
Bunguran has a
tropical rainforest climate
A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...
(Af) with heavy rainfall year-round.
References
{{Authority control
Natuna Regency
Islands of Sumatra
Landforms of the Riau Islands
Populated places in Indonesia