Orangutan understands 72 words! Extraordinary Animals on Earth!

This smart animal could be smart enough to go to outer space.

BBC Earth on Youtube shows: Azy the Orangutan communicates with his tutor via symbols and can even use verbs!

The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. At BBC EARTH, you will find 50 years worth of astounding, entertaining, thought-provoking and educational natural history content.

So-called "Orangutans" are really great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. 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.

The most arboreal of the great apes, orangutans spend most of their time in trees. They have proportionally long arms and short legs, and have reddish-brown hair covering their bodies. Adult males weigh about 75 kg (165 lb), while females reach about 37 kg (82 lb). Dominant adult males develop distinctive cheek pads or flanges and make long calls that attract females and intimidate rivals; younger subordinate males do not and more resemble adult females. Orangutans are the most solitary of the great apes: social bonds occur primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring. Fruit is the most important component of an orangutan's diet; but they will also eat vegetation, bark, honey, insects and bird eggs. They can live over 30 years, both in the wild and in captivity.

Orangutans are certainly among the most intelligent primates. They use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. The apes' learning abilities have been studied extensively. There may be distinctive cultures within populations. Orangutans have been featured in literature and art since at least the 18th century, particularly in works that comment on human society. Field studies of the apes were pioneered by primatologist Birutė Galdikas and they have been kept in captive facilities around the world since at least the early 19th century.

Which is smartest of the apes? Deemed really some of the smartest apes on the planet, orangutans are exceptional creatures with expressive faces. Overall, the species considered most intelligent among the ape species, apart from humans, are orangutans. A few methods and ideas build this foundational thought on which species are the smartest.

More facts:

Which is smarter: gorilla or chimp? Though the chimpanzees are smaller in size they have bigger brains than the mountain gorillas hence making them more intelligent than the gorillas. This makes the chimpanzees more clever and tricky animals than the mountain gorillas.

Difference between apes and monkeys? The easiest way to distinguish between a monkey or an ape is to see if it has a tail. Almost all monkeys have tails, while apes do not. Also take note of the primate's body shape, size, and other physical attributes. Apes are generally larger with wider chests and almost naked faces.

Apes are generally more intelligent than monkeys, and most species of apes exhibit some use of tools. While both monkeys and apes can use sounds and gestures to communicate, apes have demonstrated higher ability with language, and some individual apes have been trained to learn human sign languages.

African Gray Parrots are thought to be one of the most intelligent species on the planet, rivaling even apes. Some researchers have suggested that these certain parrots have a reasoning ability akin to a three- or four-year-old human child.

What is the friendliest primate to humans? Bonobo apes are kind to strangers. According to the study, bonobos will go out of their way to help strangers - even when there is no guarantee of any payback.

Gorillas are the largest apes (not monkeys!) and the strongest primate, known for their impressive strength. These powerful animals weigh up to 200 kg, and can lift almost 2,000 kg - 10 times their body weight.

Which animal has the lowest IQ? Ostriches. The bird species dominate the list of animals with low intelligence, including the ostrich, despite being the largest bird. Ostriches have small brains that weigh only 26.34 grams, making up about 0.015% of their body weight.

Which animal has 32 brains? Leech: Leech is an annelid. Leech's external and internal segmentation do not correspond to each other. If the internal body is examined, it can be seen that the body is divided into 32 parts or segments which have their own corresponding brain.

Who would win in a fight: orangutan vs gorilla? Gorillas are really far better fighters and far more capable of inflicting fatal trauma on enemies. An orangutan might escape a gorilla by climbing trees, but that is not going to defeat the gorilla.

Humans have bodies that are genetically and structurally very similar to those of the Great Apes and so we are classified in the Great Apes sub-group which is also known as the hominids (Family Hominidae).

Pound for pound, humans are definitely the weakest apes. Muscle fibers come in two varieties, fast-twitch and slow-twitch. The fast twitch muscles act faster (obviously) and exert more force in less time.

Which rarest great ape on earth could soon go extinct? Tapanuli orangutans. Less than 800 Tapanuli orangutans remain confined to the small mountainous region of Batang Toru in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

An unarmed human could not beat a chimpanzee in a fight. This may work for the biggest, strongest humans, but certainly not the average ones.

Who wins in a fight: a baboon or a chimpanzee? A chimpanzee is really much stronger than a baboon given that a chimpanzee is much larger, sometimes even twice as large, since only a handful of baboons weigh more than about 50 pounds, while a chimpanzee weighs about 70 to 100 pounds.

Interestingly, the fascinating name "orangutan" (also written orang-utan, orang utan, orangutang, and ourang-outang) is derived from the Malay words orang, meaning "person", and hutan, meaning "forest". The locals originally used the name to refer to actual forest-dwelling human beings, but the word underwent a semantic extension to include apes of the Pongo genus at an early stage in the history of Malay.