Wild orangutans show communication complexity thought to be uniquely human

[gortex]

Researchers from the UK and Canada who have been analysing the difference in warning calls made by a female Sumatran orangutan discovered she used a vocal element of a complexity thought only capable by humans , the information shared by the orangutan is multi layered to impart more detail of the perceived threat  

Recursion is the repetition of language elements in an embedded way so that they form a comprehensible thought/phrase. Like Russian nesting dolls, the power of recursion mean we can combine a finite set of elements to deliver an infinite array of messages with increasing complexity.
It is widely believed that nested communication is a unique feature of human language, allowing us greater complexity of thought, but research from The University of Warwick, published today in Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, tells a different story.
Dr. Chiara De Gregorio, Research Fellow at The University of Warwick, who performed this work alongside Adriano Lameira (also Warwick) and Marco Gamba (University of Torino), said: "When analysing the vocal data of alarm calls from female Sumatran orangutans, we found that the rhythmic structure of orangutans' sounds made were self-embedded across three levels -- an impressive third-order recursion. Finding this feature in orangutan communication challenges the idea that recursion is uniquely human."
The three-layered (recursive) structure of the orangutan's calls was as follows:

• Individual sounds made by orangutans occurred in small combinations (first layer)
  
• These combinations could be grouped into larger bouts (second layer)
  
• And these bouts could be grouped into even larger series (third layer), all with a regular rhythm at each level
  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...134254.htm

More evidence if any were needed of how similar to us our intelligent friend the orangutan is ... of course some are still idiots.

[Ninurta]

Well, the Malay have recognized the fundamental humanity of orang-utans for quite a long time already. "Orang" is a Malay word meaning "person" or "human being", as in "orang-utan" or "orang-pendek", etc.

In Malay, "orang-utan" means "person of the forest".

Orangutans have been recognized as the most intelligent of the great apes, other than humans:

https://preservingouranimalsinthewild.qu...himpanzees.

“There are no tests that can test IQ in animals. Studies show the orangutan as the most intelligent of all great apes with reasoning abilities beyond those of both gorillas and chimpanzees.

When studying animal intelligence, scientists typically analyze a subject's self-control, self-awareness, and memory. These abilities are integral to processing information and making rational choices—intelligence in its most generalized form.”

Folks should probably double check me on this, but as I recall, the now extinct (?) Gigantopithecus has been analysed to have been more closely related to orangutans than any other great ape... food for thought in regards to the North American  "Sasquatch" and other more European "wild men of the woods", as well as the Central Asian "Almas", Himalayan "Yeti", Chinese "Yeren", Australain "Yowie", and Southeast Asian "Orang-pendek".

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