The history of orangutans in human culture »

Orangutan's are so similar to humans that there is now a strong movement to give them qualified human rights. Image: Travis Isaacs, Flickr. They've been known to show compassion, there's a video of an orangutan rescuing a duckling that was in difficulty. That's something pretty special. The similarities between orangutans and humans, and the argument that primates should be given their own form of human rights, will be put under the microscope in a presentation at The Australian National University (ANU). Professor Robert Cribb, co-author of the book Wild Man from Borneo: A Cultural History of the Orangutan, has traced people's fascination of the human-like characteristics of orangutans since they were first brought back to Europe 400 years ago. "The first orangutans that came to the west were babies that had been taken from their mothers and managed to survive the long trip to Europe," Professor Cribb said.