orangutan

/əˈreɪŋətæn/

/əˈræŋətæn/

Other forms: orangutans

Orangutans are primates with red fur, and they're also the largest animals that live mostly in trees. You may have seen orangutans at the zoo, swinging from branch to branch using their long arms.

Orangutans are distinctive animals, with their shaggy hair, short legs, and long, agile arms. These intelligent primates are native to Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests, and just like those ecosystems, orangutans are endangered. Their name is derived from the Malay orang utan, "man of the forest," and it's especially fitting that we now know orangutans share more than 96 percent of their genes with humans.

Definitions of orangutan

1. noun

   large long-armed ape of Borneo and Sumatra having arboreal habits
   synonyms: Pongo pygmaeus, orang, orangutang

   type of:

   great ape, pongid

   any of the large anthropoid apes of the family Pongidae