Just something a bit more random today for you to read.

We love chimpanzees. They remind us so much of ourselves.They way they cuddle us and the way we dress them up, even if it is not going as far as the PG Tea adverts of the 1970s we still put captive chimpanzees in nappies and they are very endearing.

A still from the PG Tips Advert from the 1970s

Even the Planet of the Apes series created a generally sympathetic view of the chimpanzees, even if the view of especially Gorillas were negative. They were the ones who tried to co-exist with humans, with the exception of Koba who strictly speaking was a bonobo. Interestingly bonobos are almost identical in every aspect apart them being a matriarchy, whereas chimpanzees are are patriarchy

But maybe Koba was a more realistic representation of chimpanzees even though it was a distortion of what a bonobo is.

They are one of the few animals that not only kill their victims, but actively and intentionally torture them. Their victims are usually castrated, their faces disfigured, and their hands torn off. The thrill is that chimpanzees are one of the smartest animals, so they know what they are doing. I recall seeing a clip of this on a nature documentary many years ago and even I - with a strong disposition - found this disturbing as I did their relentless hunting of a monkey which they tore apart while it was still alive. I can still see the monkey screaming in my head.

If it were a lion or even a hyena it wouldn't bother us so much, but because of their mannerisms and physical resemblence to us it is a different matter.

They are also one of the few animals for which the policy in most zoos is that if they escape, they are immediately killed and not recaptured, because they are simply too dangerous and aggressive, and sedatives only make them angrier. And as demonstrated above, they have no qualms about victimising members of their own troop if they no longer like them.

Moreover, chimpanzees are one of the few animals that have been observed in tribal warfare against other troops of chimpanzees, and even against gorillas, often ending with the slaughter of one troop by the other. So in the end it is the gorillas who are misrepresented for being a violent species when all along it has been the chimpanzees.

So to summarise and conclude my thoughts today people think chimpanzees are cute because they look like us, but the scary thing is that they also behave like us.