The Insane Biology of: The Chimpanzee

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Eric Ypsilantis
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Writer/Narrator: Stephanie Sammann

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[realscience]

So what do you think? Do chimps have awareness of the suffering violence causes?

[xoiiku]

1:52 "Do they have the capacity to understand the atrocities they commit?" ... that capacity isn't even consistent among humans.

[hyperhippyhippohopper]

Fun fact: While you speak about Jane Goodall in the past tense, it might surprise you to know that Goodall is still alive today (September of 2024)

[falcolf]

Chimps are terrifying, I have no idea how some folks find them cute. I think if I saw one on the loose I'd be instantly frightened of it.

[John_Weiss]

15:48 One thing often missing from retellings of the situation with Travis: he had been given Xanax because he seemed stressed out. Xanax is an antianxiety medication _in _*_HUMANS._* But in chimpanzees, Xanax _causes _*_hallucinations._* So Travis was simultaneously stressed out _and tripping ba11s_ when he attacked.

No, _I AM NOT_ saying that Xanax was completely responsible for Travis' being viooent. Chimps _are naturally violent._ I just wanted to point out the disaster it is to take a violent wild animal, suffering from isolation- and captivity-induced stress, and give it human medication, medication leading to hallucinations.

[markh]

Growing up in the 50s chimps were seen as cute, funny and cuddly while gorillas were portrayed as savage beasts in so many movies. Interesting how many times human stereotypes are wrong.

[mogumogu-taberuze]

What's interesting about Travis's example is that despite his capacity for horrific violence, Travis never harmed his human "parents" before the final incident. I also read that when his foster parent attacked him with a knife in an attempt to save her friend, Travis appeared surprised and genuinely shocked that his family member would harm him - meaning that the attack was not an all-out rebellion against mankind, but simply an one-time reaction towards the victim (for whatever reasons unknown).
I know humanizing animals is not the correct way to interpret things, but it's quite similar to how humans can be very caring to their friends and family, but at the same time be ruthlessly cruel towards people they consider outsiders and enemies. Brutality and compassion are not contradicting factors within the same intelligence.

[HermitTcrab]

Travis' story is just so heartbreaking. Initially I had some sympathy for Sandra, but then I learned that when she took Travis in, Travis' mother was so devastated by the separation that they had to put her down. That is when my sympathy vanished. Plus she admitted to spiking his tea with Xanax during his final days (which indicates that there were more issues with his behavior than she lead others to believe). Caution needs to be taken when prescribing this type of medication to humans, let alone a heavyset, musclebound wild animal. Sandra's grief over the loss of her loved ones ended up costing two chimpanzees their lives and the horrific maiming of a friend. Not every animal was meant to be domesticated.

[lacucaracha]

People : Lemme have a pet chimp!

Bro, you want a 4 year old with bodybuilder strength and little self control?!

[bob]

I hear that people in Africa are actually more afraid of chimps than they are of lions. Lions don't sneak into the village under cover of darkness and steal babies out of their cribs. And they don't maim when they attack, they just kill you as quickly as possible and are done.

[AndrewWhitley-dh]

Any animal can be dangerous but one with intelligence can be dangerous on a whole new level

[popsicle]

thinking that an animal that shares 98.8% dna with us would be nonviolent, pacifistic, or unproblematic is just naive..

[thinkinoutloud]

A YouTube video with a human narrator! Awesome! She doesn't mispronounce words with odd spellings, she does not use excessive adjectives, and she doesn't show photos or videos stolen from someone else's story. I have seen AI videos where the narrator shows a photo of a starfish while talking about an octopus. This is an interesting and informative video narrated by a lovely young lady who actually knows what she is talking about! Excellent job!

[Mrs.Deanna_Ember]

I'll never understand why some people have them as pets. They're too unpredictable and powerful, and not meant to be domesticated, regardless how "nice" their handlers are.

[CortexNewsService]

To paraphrase Casual Geographic, "He didn't go violent, he went chimp." Casual has opinions on people who treat chimps like that.

[Diegos]

No matter if already knew all this because I’m a huge nature doc nerd. The way Stephanie breaks everything down and explains things is so good. Love all your videos. Thanks for making this in depth, easy to fallow videos for us nature enthusiasts.

[andrewcombe]

I spoke to a zoo worker once who told me he was terrified of them. He said if a gorilla saw a bird in its enclosure it would watch it and maybe play with it but a chimp would rip it apart limb from limb. He said no primate makes deliberate genocidal war against its rivals of the same species apart from chimps and humans.

[jimurrata]

I live in Stamford. That lady from the body shop and her chimp Travis were pretty infamous, even before he ate her friend's face.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to feed a wild primate benzos was out of their mind.

[goblinofsharksnacks]

You should do a video on Bonobos, our other closest relative, they're so different to chimps

[sirLJson]

The "we share 98.8% DNA with them" fact really does not seem so significant if you realise we share 60% of our DNA with fruit flies, bananas and Chickens. And astonishingly 90% with cats. Obviously they are very similar to us, but those 1.2% difference is much more than the number makes it seem to be