Over on his never less than excellent Tetrapod Zoology blog, Dr Darren Naish (see, we have finally grown out of the bad habit of giving him stupid nicknames) has been reading a classic book on orang utans. He writes:
'Anyway, one particular section of the book really stands out for me: the bit where MacKinnon catches sight of a gigantic, terrestrially walking male orangutan...'
and then examines a whole slew of anomalous orang utan sightings that may shed light on some of the most enduring cryptozoological mysteries in southern Asia. Read on...
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/12/encounters_gigantic_orangutans.php#more
As a matter of fact, the giant orangutans were a matter I discussed with Heuvelmans by an exchange of letters, and including the Beraung Rambi (actually one of the recognized names for a type of orangutan) He offered no especial opinion on the matter of whether they were freaks or a different species.
ReplyDeleteThe groundliving precursors to modern orangutans were undoubtedly something quite different again and I have long argued that they should not even be called Pongo but a new name should be found for them. The genus Pongo would then be reserved for our better-known living orangutans, with a series of highly specialized adaptations meant for arboreal life.