Chimpanzees Escape at German Zoo

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zooman

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Very scary footage. The visitors seemed to have absolutely no idea how dangerous the chimps are.
 
While I've heard mention that polar bears are particularly frightening for keepers for me chimpanzees would be #1 on my list of most feared animals. Other great apes are much more serene, and there are some calm chimps out there, but they can also be terrifying in their volativity. If I knew that an adult chimp was loose in a zoo I'd head directly for the exit. Why take the risk?
 
Scary stuff, in fact for me this would be the material of nightmares. I don’t like chimps very much, they are one of the very few animals in the world I do not like. I feel part of the reason I am not overwhelmed by them is that when I do look at them I see distrust, anger and aggression on occasions, this I don’t see in other animals (apart from some humans). I would be straight for the exit, into the car and down the road if a chimp had escaped from a zoo I was in at the time.
 
CGSwans said:
Very scary footage. The visitors seemed to have absolutely no idea how dangerous the chimps are.
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Exactly, I find it terrifying. I once told a keeper how scared I am of chimpanzees and he said I was absolutely right to be afraid.
 
Maybe it was fortune/luck that (many of) the visitors didn't knew about the danger. Otherwise they probably got in panic, would have been running away while screaming and had forced so the chimps to attack...
 
The chimp in the video, which I presume is the one referred to as 'he' in the comments from the zoo spokesman, looks like a fairly elderly and very placid female to me - which was probably very fortunate. I shudder to think of what an excitable adult male might have done in that situation.

Alan
 
Pootle said:
Scary stuff, in fact for me this would be the material of nightmares. I don’t like chimps very much, they are one of the very few animals in the world I do not like. I feel part of the reason I am not overwhelmed by them is that when I do look at them I see distrust, anger and aggression on occasions, this I don’t see in other animals (apart from some humans). I would be straight for the exit, into the car and down the road if a chimp had escaped from a zoo I was in at the time.
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Maybe because many captive chimps have every right to feel distrust, anger and aggression towards their captors or the stupid public who enjoy annoying them, winding them up, throwing stuff at them, chimps can be friendly, interested, kind, gentle, fun...
You've obviously never upset a bull elephant Pootle, they can be pretty angry & aggressive although I can't vouch for their trust.
 
gentle lemur said:
I shudder to think of what an excitable adult male might have done in that situation.
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Ever seen the video of the three males that escaped at Causeway Safari Park(since closed) in Ireland some years ago? One comes into the cafe and starts displaying and people are trying to fend it off with chairs. Very scary. When the old pair at Whipsnade escaped a few years ago, the female was led back to safety but 'Jonny' the male went into display mode and they had to shoot him as he was heading out of the Park.

The problem with chimps is they can be calm one moment and then go crazy a few minutes later. You can never tell what they propose to do either -when the female in the Hanover video approaches the family I was very apprehensive about what was going to happen, in that case fortunately just a friendly interaction but she could just as easily have gone into attack mode.

Some people on this thread have said the public didn't seem to realise the danger- very true but why should they if the chimps look calm? Obviously people won't react in the same way as if they are charging about screaming, though the potential danger is still equally present. These chimps, including what appears to be an elderly(?) adult male(in one shot) did seem remarkably calm under the circumstances. I think it was very fortunate no-one was hurt in this incident.
 
OrangePerson said:
Maybe because many captive chimps have every right to feel distrust, anger and aggression towards their captors or the stupid public who enjoy annoying them, winding them up, throwing stuff at them, chimps can be friendly, interested, kind, gentle, fun...
You've obviously never upset a bull elephant Pootle, they can be pretty angry & aggressive although I can't vouch for their trust.
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Each to their own OP. I just don't like them very much compared to other Great Apes, other Primates, other most things to be honest!. I can't put my finger on why this is, it is just my personal feelings towards them. It may be odd, but it is almost like a phobia it could be described as. I am fascinated watching documentraies about chimps and their family behaviour etc, but just avoid them in zoos if they are present. I don't doubt they can be friendly, interested, kind, gentle, fun, I would also add loving to your list, but they are just not for me.
I understand what you are saying about the elephant, but I don't think the comparison works with chimps and elephants regarding trust, or lack of it myself.
 
Pootle said:
I just don't like them very much compared to other Great Apes, other Primates, other most things to be honest!. I can't put my finger on why this is, it is just my personal feelings towards them. .
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You are not the only one with those sentiments. I do not personally find Chimpanzees very attractive creatures, either in appearance or behaviour, indeed far less so than the other Great Apes or most other primates. Belle Benchley, who in the 1930/40's era became Director of the San Diego Zoo, had a very close association with all the animals at the Zoo, of which the Great Apes were easily her favourites. She wrote several books just about San Diego's Apes and it was clear from these that the Chimpanzees were by far the ones she had least affection for!
 
I once heard that often when we dislike someone it is because we see something in them that we dislike about ourselves. I wonder if that is the case with how we view chimpanzees.
 
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TropicWorld54 said:
For some reason older chimps look like crazy old men maybe because of this photo http://www.zoochat.com/577/chimpanzee-118208/
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TropicWorld54,

I cannot look at that picture for very long, in my opinion it looks horrible (absolutely no offence to chimp fans, I promise). On the flip side, looking only minutes ago of pictures of Nico the old Silverback from Longleat and I can look at the pictures for ages and admire the specimen. I just can't do that with chimps. The only think I think I do like about chimps is reading journals and watching documentaries about thier troop behaviours from time to time, and then that doesn't always make good bedtime reading when you read about some of the antics they get up to!
 
TropicWorld54 said:
For some reason older chimps look like crazy old men maybe because of this photo http://www.zoochat.com/577/chimpanzee-118208/
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It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest older chimps all look like crazy old men on the basis of one blurred photograph. Boris at Chester is quite a 'mature' chimp and he is still a very handsome animal and looks nothing like a crazy old man.

I love spending time watching chimps, they are intelligent and very interesting animals, the more you recognise individuals the more fascinating the group politics becomes; maybe people do dislike them because their negative attributes are uncomfortably close to human ones.

Anyway the fewer people who like them the more space for me at the enclosure and I like to be different!
 
I don't bear any more ill will towards chimps than I do lions or hyenas or other animals I never want to be in unrestricted contact with. Orangs are my favourite great ape (and possibly my favourite mammal too), but I quite enjoy watching chimps. From a safe distance.
 
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