Photo of an orangutan (also spelled "orangatang"), crossing a "sky bridge" from one area of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. to another, as a group of bystanders watches from below

Orangutan
Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to recent research by Harvard University psychologist, James Lee, orangutans are the world's most intelligent animal other than man, with higher learning and problem solving ability than chimpanzees, which were previously considered to have greater abilities. A study of orangutans by Carel van Schaik, a Dutch primatologist at Duke University, found them capable of tasks well beyond chimpanzees’ abilities — such as using leaves to make rain hats and leakproof roofs over their sleeping nests. He also found that, in some food-rich areas, the creatures had developed a complex culture in which adults would teach youngsters how to make tools and find food.[11]

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Ref: 2007_5681

Location: National Zoo, Washington, D.C.