The internet has been gripped by wild debate over the last week: could 100 men beat a gorilla? More than 288million people – including X-owner Elon Musk – have piled in on the hypothetical conundrum offering more and more outrageous possibilities.
For all the wild assertions that these men could ‘literally sit on a gorilla and kill it’ or their plans to grapple with and gouge the beast – these militant strategies may not be necessary.
Gorillas, as it turns out, are actually incredibly shy and while they may look more akin to The Hulk, these placid giants have never been known to kill a human. The instances where they do attack are usually down to human aggression or if they are surprised or threatened.
Males will then likely roar and do bluff charges – where they run straight to the victim and then stop only a metre away.
While they are still ferociously strong and can brawl within their groups, they are not the most violent of apes. That predator in the primate world – renowned for savagely ripping off people’s faces and genitals as well as killing babies – is the chimpanzee.
Often believed to be gentle and living in harmonious communities, experts from London Zoo told MailOnline that chimps are more territorial while groundbreaking research in 2022 said that our closest relatives are innately violent.
Human interference was thought to be a large factor in their vicious outbursts but the 54-year long study showed that the coordinated group attacks that chimpanzees do display their inherent disposition to violence.
‘Violence is a natural part of life for chimpanzees,’ Michael Wilson, the study’s lead researcher and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Live Science. ‘They don’t need to be fed bananas to kill each other.’
A 57-year-old woman from Connecticut. had to have a face transplant (right) after she was savagely mauled by a chimpanzee
An American student was left fighting for his life after being attacked and dragged half a mile by two male chimps in an act of ‘territorial defence’
AI image generated by Shutterstock a gorilla is swarmed by 100 men in a fighting arena. The men are trying to pull the gorilla to the ground. The gorilla lifts one man up, a beam of light shining down on them both
During the study, the chimpanzees killed 152 people, 58 of which were scientists taking part in the observation.
Chimpanzees, alongside humans, are the only species known to plan attacks.
‘Studies of chimpanzee violence have been especially influential in how people think about the origins of human warfare,’ Wilson explained.
‘Some people have argued that human warfare is a recent cultural invention, the result of some other recent development such as the origin of agriculture.’
The dominance between primates has also been proven as chimpanzees were seen attacking, killing and then eating gorillas in Africa’s Loango National Park in Gabon.
On two occasions, chimps formed coalitions and attacked a group of gorillas for a combined 124 minutes that ended with two dead infant gorillas.
The second encounter ended with a dead, mutilated infant that was almost entirely consumed by one adult chimpanzee female.
Meanwhile, gorillas are far gentler creatures.
A famous tool-using chimpanzee ripped a baby girl from her mother’s arms before taking her into the forest to butcher her and harvest her organs (Jeje, one of the chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea, pictured yawning in December 2017)
With one hand, a silverback can exert a grip force of 1,300lb, enough to mulch a human skull like a ripe mango (stock image)
Dan Simmonds, London Zoo’s Zoological Operations Manager, said, ‘gorillas are typically gentle and shy, and like the members of our critically endangered western lowland gorilla troop at London Zoo, they all have unique personalities’.
He explained that ‘all four gorilla subspecies spend their days foraging for food and bonding with their family’.
‘They are incredibly intelligent, so they prefer not to waste energy on aggression unless provoked or their troops are threatened.’
Dr Tara Stoinski, President of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, also said that ‘while a Silverback would fight to defend his family from known dangers, they are generally calm and are known as ‘gentle giants’ – they are very family oriented and known for their care of all in their group’.
Woman’s face and hands ripped off by chimpanzee
Charla Nash, 62, underwent a face transplant in 2011 after being viciously attacked by a chimpanzee but was hospitalised five years later after doctors discovered her body was rejecting the transplant.
Nash lost her nose, lips, eyelids and hands when she was mauled in February 2009 by her employer’s 200-pound pet chimpanzee named Travis in Stamford, Connecticut.
The animal, who appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca Cola, was thought to be domesticated since he would open doors, drink wine from a glass, eat at the dinner table, and dress himself.
Charla Nash, 62, had a face transplant in 2011 after being viciously attacked by a chimpanzee
Nash also had a double hand transplant at the same time as her facial surgery but had to have them shortly removed due to her body rejecting the transplant
Nash lost her nose, lips, eyelids and hands when she was mauled in 2009 by her employer’s 200-pound pet chimpanzee in Connecticut
The animal, who appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca Cola, was thought to be domesticated
Herold was given Xanax to relax after he tried to escape by stealing the owner’s car keys, which may have contributed to his violent outburst
When Nash (pictured before the attack), arrived at the house to help, the animal brutally attacked her
He even used the computer as his owner, Sandra Herold, treated the chimp as if he were her son.
Travis tried to escape by taking Herold’s car keys and attempted to use them on several cars.
Herold, who died in 2010, tried to lure Travis back into the house and gave him an iced tea laced with Xanax. When Nash, arrived at the house to help, the animal brutally attacked her.
Investigators suggested Travis may have mistook Nash, who was familiar with the chimp, as an intruder after she appeared with a new hairstyle.
The Xanax, which is used for anxiety in humans, may have also fueled Travis’ aggression.
Nash also had a double hand transplant at the same time as her facial surgery but had to have them removed shortly afterwards due to her body rejecting the transplant.
Man loses multiple body parts in chimp mauling
St James and LaDonna Davis gained national attention in 2005 when the chimpanzee-loving couple was savagely attacked by two of the primates while visiting their cherished pet Moe at a ranch in California.
Photos of St James after the mauling — absent a foot, buttocks, nose, lips, and other body parts — shocked America.
They first entered the national spotlight in 1967, when St James brought orphaned chimpanzee Moe home from Tanzania, and the couple treated him more like a son than a wild animal.
Moe ate with the Davises at the kitchen table, slept in their bed, and was the ‘best man’ at their wedding.
He was finally moved to a ranch and when the couple went to visit Moe on his 39th birthday, two other chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure and attacked the visiting couple as they served up birthday cake.
LaDonna, left, and St James Davis, lost body parts in a frenzied chimpanzee attack in 2005 and were seen sobbing when their ‘son’ disappeared, never to be seen again
During the attack, the two chimps gouged out St James’ right eye and chewed off his nose, eight of his fingers, and parts of his skull, lips, cheek, buttocks, genitals, and feet
St James brought orphaned chimpanzee Moe home from Tanzania, and the couple treated him more like a son than a wild animal
The beloved orphan chimp Moe acted as ‘best man’ at the wedding of St James and LaDonna Davis
The chimps charged the couple. While one bit off LaDonna’s left thumb, another gouged out St James’s right eye and chewed off his nose, eight of his fingers, and parts of his skull, lips, cheek, buttocks, genitals, and feet.
The attack lasted for several minutes and ended when the two beasts were shot dead.
St James spent five months in the hospital and underwent many surgeries. He was severely disfigured, never walked again, and was blind in one eye.
Moe was transferred to a facility in the San Bernardino mountains. In 2008, he escaped from his enclosure and disappeared. The Davises ‘animal-son’ of 40 years was never seen again.
Eight-month-old baby butchered
Last summer, a tool-using chimpanzee ripped a baby girl from her mother’s arms before taking her into the forest to butcher her and harvest her organs.
Distraught mother Seny Zogba was working in a cassava field in Bossou, in Guinea, when a chimp sunk his teeth into her and stole her eight-month-old baby, named as Yoh Hélène.
The little girl’s mutilated body was found 3km from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve, with witnesses claiming she had been eviscerated – and it feared the chimp may have used his tools to maim her.
Chief researcher Gen Yamakoshi chillingly said the gruesome killing was because the chimps ‘no longer fear humans’.
The tiny community of apes, famed for their remarkable use of tools, lives in a forest around the village of Bossou, in the far southeastern corner of Guinea
An angry mob directed their fury towards the scientists who have been studying the remarkable animal community for decades, and brought the baby’s corpse to their Bossou Environmental Research Institute.
They then ransacked the building, destroying and setting fire to equipment including drones, computers and over 200 documents, the centre’s managers said.
Joseph Doré, a young member of the group from Bossou, said ‘it’s the way she was killed, that’s what angered the population’
Man dragged half a mile by two chimps lost a testicle and an ear
Andrew Oberle, 26, was left fighting for his life after being attacked and dragged half a mile by two male chimps in an act of ‘territorial defence’.
He lost an ear, several fingers and toes and a testicle, had his muscle ripped from his arm and suffered deep lacerations to both legs after the attack in 2012.
Doctors said his parents – originally from Florida – were ‘traumatised by their disfigured son who has to be in an induced coma to keep him comfortable.
Experts believe the two chimpanzees were marking their territory when they pounced on Mr Oberle after he strayed into a ‘no-go’ zone at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden near Johannesburg in South Africa.
Mr Oberle now has a bionic right hand after the attack left most of his fingers torn off and his left wrist was destroyed
Experts believe the two chimpanzees were marking their territory when they pounced on Mr Oberle after he strayed into a ‘no-go’ zone at a South African institute
Oberle went under 26 different surgeries to repair the damage from the attack, four of which were to reconstruct his nose
The chimps pulled him under two fences, the second of which was electrified, before dragging him for half a mile.
Oberle, an American researcher, was giving tourists a lecture at the sanctuary as part of his master’s degree in Anthropology and Primatology, based at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Over the next couple of years, Oberle went under 26 different surgeries to repair the damage from the attack, four of which were to reconstruct his nose.
He now has a bionic right hand after the attack left most of his fingers torn off and his left wrist was destroyed, so doctors had to repair all the tendons in it in order for him to use it again.
He also has prosthetic’s where both of his feet were because they were past the point of repair.
‘I don’t blame chimps at all,’ Oberle said, ‘they’re wild animals. You can’t know what’s going to happen.’
He lost an ear, several fingers and toes and a testicle, had his muscle ripped from his arm and suffered deep lacerations to both legs after the attack in 2012 (pictured before the attack)
Oberle, an American researcher, was giving tourists a lecture at the sanctuary as part of his master’s degree in Anthropology and Primatology
Attacked by pet of 17 years
Tamara Brogoitti, 68, made a desperate call to 911 after her daughter was attacked by a chimpanzee that was kept as a pet on a family ranch for 17 years and the pair were forced to take shelter in a basement bedroom.
Buck the chimp was shot at the ranch in Pendleton, Eastern Oregon, after biting the 50-year-old woman in the legs, arms and torso in 2021.
‘She needs an ambulance. The ambulance can not get to her. I’ve locked myself in the basement with her. I can’t get out to get my own gun. She’s bleeding profusely. I’ve never seen anything like this,’ Brogoitti said in the audio of the call to the cops obtained by KHQ-TV.
When the 911 operator asked if she was able to put pressure on her daughter’s wounds she replied: ‘I’m trying to guard her from a 200-pound ape, so I can’t really put pressure on it, ma’am’.
Umatilla County Sheriff´s Office deputies arrived and shot the animal dead so they could safely get to the victim.
Broigotti and her daughter were both taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Pendleton for treatment.
Buck the adult chimpanzee was shot by a deputy for his unprovoked attack on his owner’s 50-year-old daughter
When deputies arrived to Broigotti’s house, Buck had been trying to get away while roaming around the fence that surrounded the property
Tamara Brogoitti had to give permission to the deputy to shoot Buck so she and her daughter could get an ambulance to their house
As the deputies arrived on to the scene, Buck was roaming near a fence that surrounded the Brogoitti house, Sheriff´s Lt. Sterrin Ward said.
To get Brogoitti and her daughter medical attention, the sheriff’s office concluded that Buck would have to be ‘put down’.
Brogoitti gave the deputies permission to shoot Buck, and he was shot once to the head and died on the spot.
From 2010 to early 2019, Buck was a part of the Buck Brogoitti Animal Rescue. The nonprofit primarily housed and cared for horses the sheriff´s office seized in abuse and neglect cases.
In 2010, the state of Oregon made it illegal to keep great apes including chimpanzees as pets.
But the law allowed exotic animals owned prior to 2010 to be kept until the end of their natural life – allowing Brogoitti to be excused from the ban.
Escaped chimp attacked carers
An escaped chimp was seen fly-kicking his carer in a bid for freedome from China’s Hefei Wildlife Park.
The 12-year-old chimpanzee called Yang Yang was seen charging at visitors and then flung the employee into a wall.
His violent outburst was short lived as he was quickly tranquillised and returned to his cage but not before police were called and visitors evacuated in 2019.
It was the second ‘prison break’ in recent years for chimpanzees, with one managing to escape by climbing the electricity pylons out of the zoo.
Chacha, the male chimp, screams at a worker as he desperately to avoid being captured
The chimp escaped from Sendai Yagiyama Zoological Park with keepers in hot pursuit but climbed up an electricity pole
The chimp, 24-year-old Chacha, escaped from Sendai Yagiyama Zoological Park and was seen roaring at zoo guards trying to bring him back but was eventually shot with a tranquiliser dart.
He fell to the floor before being taken away by a zoo ambulance.
Four chimpanzees were also shot dead after sparking panic when they escaped from their zoo enclosure in Sweden.
The zoo said that the animals had to be euthanized because there was not enough tranquilliser for all of them.
A fifth chimpanzee is also believed to have escaped but found its own way back into the enclosure.
