Let's Talk About: The Mangani (Briefly)

  A new Tarzan movie is coming out. Hopefully it won't suck too hard. But the trailer makes it look like they go the Mangani wrong.
  The Mangani are, of course, the species that raised Tarzan. In more contemporary movies and TV they are portrayed as gorillas.
  This is wrong.
  The Mangani are portrayed as being capable of walking upright comfortably for long periods and of being omnivorous with a fondness for meat. They used some tools and even built fairly advanced shelters. They described gorillas as a different species (it is implied Mangani are not as large as gorillas). And, biggest deal of all, they had a complex spoken language!
  Other Mangani were taught human language, were trained to paddle and navigate canoes, and some even wore clothes in order to sneak into a human camp - they are obviously much more human in build, gait. etc. that gorillas and much more intelligent.
  In this language the Mangani spoke of gorillas and chimps as different species but spoke of humans as a "type of" Mangani and humans and Mangani were interfertile - this is a rather Big Deal, actually, showing that the Mangani are very, very close to Humanity!
  But I am guessing that the movie will, once again, have them as gorillas.