A world teeming with giant orangutans

There may have been many different kinds, they used to be in all sorts of places, and some of them were very large: Darren Naish outlines some of what is known, and some of what is not.

Naish includes this from an 1849 account of the slaughter of a large male:

Those who aided in this slaughter acknowledged that they were distressed by the human-like expression of his countenance, the piteous manner in which he applied his hands to his wounds, and the whole bearing of the dying combatant. They confessed that the sight was such as almost to make them question the nature of the act they were committing.