Orangutans Communicate Intelligently Using Gestures, Researchers Have Discovered

 Two British scientists from the University of St Andrews who spent nine months observing the great apes at Twycross Zoo in the UK, Apenheul Primate Park in the Netherlands, and the Durrell trust in Jersey have identified 40 frequently used body language signals of Orang-utans.   These signals were employed repeatedly to send messages such as "I want to play", "give it to me", "go away", "follow me", or "stop doing that". The research also shed light on the origins of human speech millions of years ago. Orangutans can learn human sign language.

The gestures have been compiled into the first ape dictionary.

Details of the study appear in the latest issue of journal Animal Cognition.