Social media has gone mad with theories on who would win in a fight – 100 men or one gorilla? But experts have revealed that we’ve been focussing on the wrong beast
Who could win in a fight, 100 men or one gorilla?(Image: Grok)
Social media users have been in a frenzy over the past few days trying to prove who would win in a fight: 100 men or one silverback gorilla?
While the jury is still out, an expert has officially weighed in their opinion and suggested that keen debaters are focussing on the wrong animal. There are no official documented cases of a gorilla killing a human, in fact the beasts are thought to be relatively shy, with alpha males only targeting other gorillas. As the saying goes, ‘their bark is worse than their bite.’
However, one expert says the real enemy of the animal kingdom is, in fact, chimpanzees. Several users have been making gorilla take-down plans online, including militant grabs from behind or even sitting on them. But it seems it’s all in vain…
Chimps are thought to be the most violent primates (Image: Grok)
Experts from London Zoo told MailOnline that chimps are more likely to lash out, due to them being far more territorial than gorillas. Research from 2022 said that chimps – our closest relatives – are innately violent.
While their violent outbursts over the past 54 years have been mostly down to human interference, the study found that chimps are just seemingly naturally more likely to lash out. Gorillas, on the other hand, are more peaceful.
“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.”
During the study, the chimpanzees killed 152 other chimpanzees, of which 58 were directly observed by scientists taking part in the observation.
Not only that, chimpanzees are the only other species known to actively plan their 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.”
They are the only other species known for planning violence (Image: Grok)
If it takes at least 100 men to take down one gorilla, it would take double that for chimps. In Africa’s Loango National Park in Gabon, chimpanzees were seen actively plotting against and attacking gorillas – even managing to take them down.
Dr Tara Stoinski, President of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, 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”.
Planet of the Chimps
Chimpanzees also have a history of violence against humans. Charla Nash, 62, was forced into 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 A-list chimp was in adverts for Old Navy and Coca Cola, and was seen dressing himself, opening doors and even swigging from wine glasses as he dined at a table along with his family.
Travis tried to escape by taking his owner’s car keys and attempted to use them on several cars. Following this, he lashed out at a family friend and attacked her face.
Body part brawl
Gorilla, contrary to popular belief, are actually considered quite shy (Image: Grok)
Elsewhere in California, St James and LaDonna Davis gained media attention after a chimpanzee removed several of their body parts.
Their chimp, which they rescued from Tanzania, was brought up as more of a son than a wild animal. But, he attacked. Photos emerged of St James with a foot, buttocks, nose, lips, and other body parts missing after a savage attack.
The chimp, who was also best man at their wedding, was moved to a ranch. The couple visited him but he escaped along with two other primates and attacked the couple as they served them up birthday cake.
He was was transferred to a facility in the San Bernardino mountains. In 2008, he escaped from his enclosure and disappeared. The Davises ‘animal-son’ was never seen again…
Weapon wielders
As for weapons, some chimps have adapted to start using tools as weapons. Last summer, one of them ripped a baby girl from her mother’s arms before taking her into the forest to butcher her and harvest her organs in Guinea.
The mother Seny Zogba was working in a cassava field in Bossou when a chimp bit her before stealing her 8-month-old from her. The little girl’s mutilated body was found 3km away.
Charla Nash was mauled by a chimp
Witnesses claimed she had been eviscerated, and reports suggest the chimp may have used his tools to maim her.
Surgery nightmare
Another man’s unfortunate encounter with a chimp left him missing a testicle. Andrew Oberle, 26, was 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. It happened in Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden near Johannesburg in South Africa.
Oberle had 26 different surgeries to repair the damage from the attack, with four needed to reconstruct his nose.
He now has a prosthetic right hand as most of his fingers were torn off and doctors had to repair all the tendons in his wrist 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.
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