Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest (Guardian)

[supernova]

Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest


James Randerson, science correspondent
Saturday July 14, 2007
The Guardian

Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.

Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.

<snip>

The most detailed and recent data comes from Cleve Hicks, at the University of Amsterdam, who has spent 18 months in the field watching the Bili apes - named after a local town - since 2004. His team's most striking find came after one of his trackers heard chimps calling for several days from the same spot.

When he investigated he came across a chimp feasting on the carcass of a leopard. Mr Hicks cannot be sure the animal was killed by the chimp, but the find lends credence to the apes' lion-eating reputation.

More ... http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2126328,00.html

[Solly Mack]

1. too cool

[supernova]

2. It's bizzare - still looking for a pic

:D

If anybody finds one. I want to see what "giant" means. ;-)

[Solly Mack]

4. I went looking earlier and found these

http://karlammann.com/gallery-bili.php
http://home.clara.net/rfthomas/papers/bili.html

The lack of pictures in the article you posted nagged me as well

Still...if it all bears out.. neat!

[supernova]

5. So, giant means

about the same weight and height (if fully upright) as a man. Interesting. That one was 270 lbs. Wow! :wow:

I feel so sad when people kill these creatures. There's no evidence to suggest that they are as violent as we are.

Well, bringing down a big cat bare-handed. :yoiks:

[donsu]

9. they kill to eat - men kill each other for profit and power

and their killing spills over to women and children and all other living things.

the apes, or whatever animal, bug, bird, etc., kill to eat.

and apparently domestic cats and men are the only ones that torture.

[kestrel91316]

10. Domestic cats do NOT "torture". Many of them have never properly

learned all the steps in obtaining and eating prey.

Step 1: Stalking
Step 2: Attacking
Step 3: Killing
Step 4: Eating

These are LEARNED behaviors. They have to be taught by mom cat, who may herself not know all the steps. If they have learned to stalk and attack but not to kill, it looks like torture to us. Playing with their prey may be true play behavior, or it may be helpful in getting them into killing mode, or may be a sign of arrested behavioral development, but it is NOT deliberate cruelty.

Man is deliberately, consciously cruel. Cats are not.

[qazplm]

11. either way

dead is dead is it not?

I'm not sure the dead animal, bug, bird, etc. feels any less dead because it was food versus because it was over profit.

Man is an animal, just like the other animals, no better, and no worse.

I don't understand this whole humans are evil and animals are pure mindset.

[supernova]

12. I think his point was

that these Bili chimps seem to kill for food for survival. We kill, on occasion, because we enjoy it. (If we are honest about it. )

I'm not sure about that.

Jane Goodall observed in her tribes that she studies, a murderous family who cannibalized members in that same group. Whether it was enjoyment or mental impairment, who knows? But she did find it shocking because until that time, she had only observed aggression and warlike behavior between groups, usually over territory. The same sorts of "reasons" we give for wanting to harm others.

http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/study-corner/chimpanzees/gombe-timeline.asp

[hobbit709]

3. Another killer ape-we are not alone.

[supernova]

6. Nope, we are not

not by a long shot.

[glitch]

7. Perhaps our closest relative. nt

[DBoon]

8. Picture of their habitat

[TheBaldyMan]

13. I wonder if the British will release them in Basra to control the man-eating badgers

those poor Iraqis.

link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm|British blamed for Basra badgers]

I kid you not, Basra residents are claiming the British Armed forces have released man-eating badgers to terrorise the area.

[supernova]

14. I saw that headline

Cool alliteration! :D

I know badgers aren't the friendliest critters on the planet, but man-eating? C'mon.

[TheBaldyMan]

15. a quote from the BBC item about the man-eating badgers ....

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."

"We have been told these are indigenous nocturnal carnivores that don't attack humans unless cornered."

<----a man-eating badger

[TZ]

16. EEEK! You have a lot of nerve posting a scary photo like that!

How am I going to sleep without nightmares now?:hide: :silly:
Seriously though..that falls under the category of pathetically funny. Are we now teaching Iraqi's the fine art of wooism? How in world does a insane rumor like that take hold, I wonder?:shrug:

[TheBaldyMan]

17. there not so scary if you call them 'honey badgers' (mellivorae capensis)

That's what I identified them as when I first saw the pic. I think they're really cool.

[Cobalt-60]

18. they'll come right under the door!