A New Species Of Giant Ape?

jd writes "The New Scientist, The Age (an Australian newspaper), Daily Telegraph (a British newspaper), BBC, and the Discovery Channel are talking excitedly about a strange primate, found in the Congo. Locals say it is notorious for killing fully-grown adult lions. Optimists hope that it is a new species, maybe related to the gorilla. Pessimists claim it's an overgrown chimpanzee. In either case, primates aren't discovered every day, making this a rare find indeed."

Comments

whoa...actually went back and RTFA...

[interactive_civilian]

and IMHO, with the exception of the coloration and the stone paddles, these "new" primates seem to resemble the grey gorillas in Michael Crichton's (sp?) Congo quite well. From the BBC article:

They stand up to two metres tall, the size of gorillas, and like gorillas, they nest on the ground, not in trees.

~snip~

She describes her encounter with them: "Four suddenly came rushing out of the bush towards me," she told New Scientist.

"If this had been a bluff charge, they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet. And they were huge. They were coming in for the kill. I was directly in front of them, and as soon as they saw my face, they stopped and disappeared."

That is not so different from the behavior of the gorillas in Congo...

I wonder why they stopped attacking when they saw her...

Bushmeat

[kyhwana]

Wonder how long till they get turned into bushmeat

HOW do they kill lions?

[aussie_a]

Chimpanzee's do employ natural objects in order to get maggots in trees. I just want to know, how do these apes kill lions? Do they use stones? Jaws of animals? Sure they can probably use their fists, but if they used tools, well it'd certainly be something noteworthy.

Re:no photos?

[Firethorn]

So, these chimps are the equivalent of the people from the Norse region?

If you look at humanity, you find a huge range of adult sizes along with a wide range of colorations. As closely related as apes are, I'd expect the same.

Re:no photos?

[Coriolis]

You're absolutely right, the standard mitochondrial DNA analysis places them in 'schweinfurthii' (which, geographically, they border with).

However, it has been pointed out that mtDNA analyses cannot always distinguish between closely related species, and the answer cannot be definitively known until a a full nuclear DNA analysis is performed.

Also, it's worth nothing that, whilst chimps can grow to various sizes, these apes are considerably larger than even the largest chimp on record, and their behaviour is substantially different from typical chimp behaviour

Re:whoa...actually went back and RTFA...Wild Pigs?

[davidsyes]

APES and other Animals:

APES:

-Maybe these bad boys cross-bred with the Apes of India... and supposing this, she hollers, "Yoni-Yoni-Yoni-Yoni.... kamasalila-saspanda..."

--Maybe they wanted "dark meat" that day, rib-less and skinless?

OTHER ANIMALS:

As for "as everyone that hunted once in their life knows, wild animals run like hell at the sight of humans, no matter how 'dangerous' the animals are, like tigers, lions and whatnot.."

Tell that to a co-worker of mine. He told me in that once in his younger days he and friends went hunting.
A wild pig appeared and his "Mr.-I'm-Tough" friend confidently takes aim and BLAST! Off goes some pig skin.

Pig keeps charging.

Friends head for the trees.

BLAM! off goes more skin, and a chunk of flesh.

Wild pig keeps charging.

Shooter furiously reloads. BLAM!

Off goes a chunk of pig eye. Pig keeps coming.

Shotgun jams or is ammoless.

Shooter drops shotgun and does what friends did: hauls ass into the neares climbable tree and stays there.

Pig rams tree, squealing, snorting, gushing blood a few minutes or longer. Eventually it dies from bleeding to death more than from that choice of shotgun used for hunting.

Not ALL animals fear and run from humans. Nor should they. They SHOULD chomp, rip or slas our encroaching asses at least ONCE in a while, right? Right!

I don't hunt, on land or at sea, but if I did, I'd only dive if I had a razor-festooned and cyanid-loaded, multi-layer suit that would poison the creature that ate me. I may dive to take pics, but not take a stabe at animal. They do what they have to do to eat. I'll do what I have to do to not be dessert, or deserted.

Maybe a Bruce-Dern-/Black Sunday-like black box filled with needels could "fleschette" an attacking shark and defuse that attack/charge. But, woe be unta any diving partners on the wrong side of the firing line...