Jazz cats stand aside because Adelaide Zoo's Sumatran orangutan Kluet has released a debut single for World Orangutan Day.

Producer and primate keeper Pij Olijnyk described the tune Give me a Klue, which was created using a music-making app, as modern jazz.

"There are certainly nods to a couple of classic jazz songs in there," he said.

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"I can hear a bit of Pink Panther theme and I think there's a bit of The Way You Look Tonight as well."

Orangutans are incredibly intelligent and share 97 per cent of their DNA with humans.

"He's brilliant, [orangutans] in general are really the geniuses of the animal world.

"Kluet in particular is very playful and cheeky, very inquisitive, loves to try new things."

The 20-year-old's song is being sold on the Zoos SA website where people can pay what they would like to support Adelaide Zoo's three Sumatran orangutans.

Asked if the zoo had found a musical prodigy, the keeper said: "Definitely, I think he's got some talent there."

"The piece of music was actually recorded in two takes — one for the drums, one for the piano, so it was straight up, he was just a natural."

Keeper Pij Olijnyk with a signed copy of Kluet's recording. ( ABC News: Michael Coggan )

Mr Olijnyk said the primates were often kept engaged with technology such as phones and tablet devices.



"Just as you can with a kid, we've come up with different apps — things like drawing and painting apps, music apps, anything like that, "he said.

"Kluet loves watching videos. He loves watching videos of himself. He's got a little bit of an ego issue there perhaps, but he really cracks himself up a bit with some of those videos."

He was not prepared to claim the recording as a world first, but said it might have been.

"I think that multi-tracking a song with drum and piano may well be a world first , but I'm not going to commit on that," he said.

"It's an opportunity to just celebrate orangutans but also to raise a bit of awareness about the plight of wild orangs because they're in a lot of trouble.

"Sumatran orangutans like Kluet are critically endangered, there's somewhere between 4,000 to 7,000 left in the wild and we're probably losing about 1,000 a year at the moment due to habitat loss in particular."

The zoo has a partnership with Wildlife Asia to support habitat protection and rescue efforts of Sumatran orangutans.