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Investigating how different evolutionary forces have shaped patterns of DNA variation within and among species requires detailed knowledge of their demographic history. Orang‐utans, whose distribution is currently restricted to the South‐East Asian islands of Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatra (Pongo abelii), have likely experienced a complex demographic history, influenced by recurrent changes in climate and sea levels, volcanic activities and anthropogenic pressures. Using the most extensive sample set of wild orang‐utans to date, we employed an Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) approach to test the fit of 12 different demographic scenarios to the observed patterns of variation in autosomal, X‐chromosomal, mitochondrial and Y‐chromosomal markers. In the best‐fitting model, Sumatran orang‐utans exhibit a deep split of populations north and south of Lake Toba, probably caused by …