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Orangutans have often attracted attention in popular culture. They are mentioned extensively in works of fiction and video games, while some captive individuals have drawn much attention in real life.
Orangutans are 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 and the Sumatran orangutan. A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan, was identified definitively in 2017. The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which diverged genetically from the other hominids between 19.3 and 15.7 million years ago.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Paul Dehn. The film is the sequel to Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and the fourth installment in the original Planet of the Apes film series. It stars Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalbán, Natalie Trundy, and Hari Rhodes. In the film, set in a world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar (McDowall), the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces out of hiding from the authorities and prepares for a rebellion against humanity.
Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, based on a story by Paul Dehn. The film is the sequel to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and the fifth and final installment in the original Planet of the Apes film series. It stars Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Lew Ayres, Paul Williams, and John Huston. In the film, after conquering the oppressive humans, Caesar (McDowall) tries to keep the peace amongst the humans and apes, but uprisings endure.
James Michael Cronin MBE was the American co-founder in 1987 of Monkey World in Dorset, England, a sanctuary for abused and neglected primates. He was widely acknowledged as an international expert in the rescue and rehabilitation of abused primates, and in the enforcement of international treaties aimed at protecting them from illegal trade and experimentation.
Representations of gorillas are common in popular culture in the Western world with the full range of electronic media having gorillas as mascots, gorillas behaving like humans, and humans behaving like gorillas.
The Zoo was a New Zealand observational documentary series, made by Greenstone TV, that followed the lives of Auckland Zoo's animals and zookeepers. The series explored the new arrivals and births of Auckland Zoo, to the fights, illnesses and mating rituals, how the animals are fed and how they live. The series' production crew were based full-time at the zoo, but the series also followed zookeepers overseas on zoo-related trips.
Ah Meng was a female Sumatran orangutan and a tourism icon of Singapore. Ah Meng was originally from Indonesia and was kept illegally in Singapore as a domestic pet before being recovered by a veterinarian in 1971. She was then eleven years old and was given a home at the Singapore Zoo.
Ken Allen was a Bornean orangutan at the San Diego Zoo. He became one of the most popular animals in the history of the zoo because of his many successful escapes from his enclosures. He was nicknamed "the Hairy Houdini".
The Center for Great Apes is a sanctuary for great apes located east of Wauchula, Florida. Its mission is to provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued or retired from the entertainment industry, from research, or from the exotic pet trade; to educate the public about captive great apes and the threats to conservation of great apes in the wild; and to advocate for the end of the use of great apes as entertainers, research subjects, and pets.
Planet of the Apes is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control as the dominant species. The franchise started with French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes, translated into English as Planet of the Apes or Monkey Planet. Its 1968 film adaptation, Planet of the Apes, was a critical and commercial hit, initiating a series of sequels, tie-ins, and derivative works. Arthur P. Jacobs produced the first five Apes films through APJAC Productions for distributor 20th Century Fox; following his death in 1973, Fox controlled the franchise, before its acquisition by Disney in 2019.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 American science fiction action film directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by the writing team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes film series and is the seventh installment overall and the first in the reboot series. The film stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, and Andy Serkis. In the film, Caesar (Serkis), a chimpanzee genetically enhanced and raised by chemist Will Rodman (Franco), goes from living in captivity to eventually leading an ape uprising against humanity.
Lady Jane, known as Jenny, was an orangutan kept in captivity in London Zoo between November 1837 and her death in May 1839. She was the first of her species at the Zoo and is remembered for her meeting with the naturalist Charles Darwin who compared her reactions to those of a human child. The experience reinforced Darwin's view that human beings were "created from animals". He wrote in his notebook that after meeting an animal like Jenny, no man could "boast of his proud preeminence".
"Fry and Leela's Big Fling" is the seventeenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 131st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on June 19, 2013. The episode was written by Eric Rogers and directed by Edmund Fong. Fry and Leela attempt to have a romantic time together, but with everyone around they cannot get time alone.
Sandra is an orangutan, currently living in the Center for Great Apes in Florida after being moved from the Buenos Aires Zoo in 2019. Sandra is a zoo-born, hybrid orangutan of the two separate species of Borneo and Sumatra orangutans. In Germany, Sandra, then called Marisa, was transferred to a second zoo in Germany (Ruhr-Zoo), then transferred to Argentina on September 17, 1994. At the Buenos Aires Zoo, the name of the orangutan was changed to Sandra.
Louise (Lou) Grossfeldt is a zoo keeper, primate husbandry specialist and conservationist, based in Australia. For over 20 years, she worked with primates at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. In 2015, Lou commenced work as a curator at Mogo Zoo on the New South Wales South Coast. In 2017 she became Mogo Zoo's Manager Life Sciences. In January 2019, she was appointed as the Manager of Primates at Sydney Zoo in Western Sydney.
Caesar is a fictional character in the Planet of the Apes franchise. He is the leader of the apes in both the original and reboot series. Caesar is portrayed by Roddy McDowall in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973); his likeness is reprised in the comic series Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes (2016). Andy Serkis portrayed the character in the reboot series, consisting of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a 2024 American science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball and written by Josh Friedman. It is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot film series and the tenth film overall, serving as a standalone sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). The film stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. The film takes place many generations after the events of War and follows Noa (Teague), a young chimpanzee who embarks on a journey alongside Mae (Allan), a human woman, to determine the future for apes and humans alike.
Joe Martin was a captive orangutan who appeared in at least 50 American films of the silent era, including approximately 20 comedy shorts, several serials, two Tarzan movies, Rex Ingram's melodrama Black Orchid and its remake Trifling Women, the Max Linder feature comedy Seven Years Bad Luck, and the Irving Thalberg-produced Merry-Go-Round.
