Orangutan, (Malaysian: “person of the forest”) (genus Pongo), also spelled orang-utan, any of three species of Asian great apes found in rainforests on the Southeast Asian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) inhabits large portions of Borneo, whereas the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii) and the Tapanuli orangutan (P. tapanuliensis) are limited to northern …