orangutan

A large mainly solitary arboreal great ape with long reddish brown hair, long arms, and hooked hands and feet, native to Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia. The mature male develops fleshy cheek pads and a throat pouch. Orangutans eat an omnivorous diet consisting of fruit, foliage, eggs, insects, and small animals. They are also known to consume soil on occasion (geophagy).

Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species. From 1996, they were divided into two species: the Bornean orangutan (P. pygmaeus, with three subspecies) and the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii). A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis), was identified definitively in 2017. The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids (gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans) between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago.