Mangani

Mangani is the name of a fictional species of great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of the invented language used by these apes. In the invented language, Mangani (meaning "great-ape") is the apes' word for their own kind, although the term is also applied (with modifications) to humans. The Mangani are represented as the apes who foster and raise Tarzan.

As a species of ape

The Mangani are described by Burroughs as approximately man-sized, and appear to be a species intermediate between chimpanzees and gorillas. There have been a number of attempts to identify the fictional Mangani with an actual primate species. Science fiction author Philip José Farmer speculated they might be a variety of Australopithecus in his pseudo-biography of Tarzan, Tarzan Alive. Walt Disney Pictures' 1999 animated feature film Tarzan, its sequels, and the television series The Legend of Tarzan based on it, portray the apes who raised Tarzan as gorillas, though in the books gorillas, called Bolgani by the Mangani, are explicitly stated to be a separate species. It has also been suggested that the Mangani be retroactively identified with the recently discovered Bili Ape, a type of giant chimpanzee sharing some of the traits of the fictional species, including size and habitat.

Mangani (disambiguation)

Mangani is a fictional species of great apes from the Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the invented language used by these apes.

Mangani may also refer to:

See also