Great Natuna Island (''Pulau Natuna Besar'' in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

) or just Natuna is the main island of the Middle Natuna Archipelago, which is part of the Riau Islands Province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is also called Great Bunguran Island (''Pulau Bunguran Besar''). The area of Great Natuna is 1,720 km². The highest point is Mount Ranai at . The island had a population of 52,000 inhabitants according to the 2010 census. The principal settlement is

Ranai Ranai Kota is the capital of the Natuna Regency archipelago in the Riau Islands, Indonesia. It has one airport and can be reached by boat. It is located on East Bunguran, and East Bunguran has a population of 20,800. Medical There is a hosp ...

. The island can be reached by scheduled air services via Ranai Airport. The island is home to three

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of non-human

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

s: the slow loris (''

Nycticebus coucang The Sunda slow loris (''Nycticebus coucang'') or greater slow loris is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to Indonesia, West Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore. It measures from head to tail and weighs between . ...

''), the long-tailed macaque ('' Macaca fascicularis''), and the Natuna leaf monkey (a.k.a. Natuna pale-thighed surili, '' Presbytis natunae''). 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 (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in the north-east corner of the island. The Masjid Agung Natuna was built over two years from 2007 to 2009. On 18 December 2018, Indonesia opened a military base with over 1,000 personnel on Natuna Besar Island.

References

{{Coord, 3, 56, 52.93, N, 108, 12, 45.31, E, type:isle, display=title Natuna Regency Islands of Sumatra Landforms of the Riau Islands