Also, somewhat humorously, Hicks had seen some of the chimpanzees carrying whole termite-mounds to rocks where they could then be smashed/broken open. How to Live In Peace with Your Cat and Small Pets? They can stand on their feet and walk some distances upright. Bili Apes (chimpanzees): Little information is known so far, except the following- that they are in fact chimpanzees; gene tests indicate they belong to an existing species of chimpanzee with very little genetic difference- however they bear some slight anatomical differences with regular chimpanzees. Williams described the experience thusly: “We could hear them in the trees, about 10 meters away, and four suddenly came rushing through the brush towards me.

http://www.chimpsanctuarynw.org/blog/tag/dr-cleve-hicks/. At a later point in the research Hicks had a lucky-break when one of the trackers he was working with suggested a place for them to visit. Within the species, there are two different types of behavioral patterns. As with more or less all of the remaining megafauna animals of the world, the future existence of the Bili Apes is a very open question — this is almost entirely due to seemingly ever-expanding human settlements and industry/commercial-activity. thank you so much for posting this. Appearance. Putting that thought quite bluntly when he stated: “I think the military are giving guns to the poachers.”. Instead, they would come face-to-face with their human cousins, stare intently in half-recognition, then slide away quietly. They also aren't known to show any aggression towards humans. Bili Apes or Bondo Mystery Apes are giant primates that appear to live in remote east Africa, where much evidence points to their existence, including photos, footprints and ground nests. Instead, they would come face-to-face with their human cousins, stare intently in half-recognition, then slide away quietly. Colin Groves, a primate morphology researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra, noted: “The ground nests were very big and there was obviously something very unusual going on there. Their footprints, which range from 28 to 34 centimeters, are longer than the largest common chimp and gorilla footprints, which average 26 cm and 29 cm, respectively. Off in one of the few remaining relatively primeval natural environments of the world — the Bili Forest of the far-northern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo — lives a band of very large chimpanzees that possess a number of very strange qualities and behaviors. According to Hicks, he can’t be completely sure that the animal was killed by the chimpanzee — but the event certainly does give a lot of credence to the folk-stories that mention them hunting and eating lions, doesn’t it? The apes of this community (including the old males) would apparently “surround their human visitors and show curiosity towards them, but would not attack or become threatening.”. Also, interestingly, the community has what Hicks referred to as “smashing culture” — having found hundreds of large-snails and hard-shelled fruits that had been smashed open to get to the meat and fruit. There are the 'tree beaters', who disperse high into the trees to stay safe, and who easily succumb to the poison arrows used by local hunters. Hicks’s group later confirmed and somewhat expanded those observations, saying that when they encountered a large group of Bili apes in the deep forests (far from the roads and villages), they not only approached the humans, but also would actually surround them with intent curiosity. Brief but significant observations of the ape only began about 5 years ago so we will eagerly wait for more scientist to go deep into the Congo looking for the mystery ape. However, chimpanzee skulls are 190 to 210 millimeters long, but four of five Bili Ape skulls measured more than 220 millimeters, well beyond the end of the normal chimpanzee range. Bili apes have been a mystery for a long time.

NBC On Assignment Bili Apes program: Bili Apes or Bondo Mystery Apes are giant primates that appear to live in remote east Africa, where much evidence points to their existence, including photos, footprints and ground nests.

Cryptid Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. They were coming in for the kill – but as soon as they saw my face they stopped and disappeared.”. Text version: http://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/search-mystery-apes-bili-forest-n568751, Your email address will not be published. They are not unknown elsewhere but very unusual.”.

“Things are not promising,” stated Karl Ammann, the wildlife photographer who’s been credited with sparking interest in the apes back in 1996. Behavior toward humans has baffled and intrigued scientists. The Bili Apes do not howl at the moon, instead they pant-hoot and tree-drum like other chimpanzees. It was offered to me for sale by a government official. I’m in love with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.

Further from the roads, however, the chimpanzees become progressively 'naive'. http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/on-assignment/assignment-mystery-apes-congo-n567746 One of the first researchers to get a close up view of the Bili Apes — pretty soon after a 5-year-long civil war ended in 2003 — was a speciality in primate behavior by the name of Shelly Williams.

(As an anecdote, I recall hearing from someone that works with chimps a story about a large male putting deep dents into a very, very thick steel door (they have very dense bones).). What Is A Meteor Shower? The remains of a large turtle that had, apparently, been smashed open by the chimps was also found by the researchers. Hicks' team has, in a year and a half of study, found no footprints longer than 30 cm, and most have been smaller. Top 10 (Plus) Hybrid Animals of the World, Finger Animals - Animals that Can Fit on Your Finger, Binturong - Asian Bearcat with Large Bushy Tail ›. While a common gorilla will charge a group of humans and attack, the Bili ape has been observed to come up to humans showing no fear or aggression, just mild recognition of a similar creature. Laura Darby and Adam Singh have seen another nine chimpanzee orphans and three carcasses in Aketi, Buta, and Bondo, since Hicks left in November. Hicks has said much the same thing, noting that while the chimpanzees are an endangered species and fully protected in DRC law, “it is only a law on paper”. Their diet is also decidedly chimpanzee-like, consisting mainly of fruits (fruiting trees such as Strangler Figs are visited often). Fact pages and pictures of curious creatures, Animals / Mammal Facts / Bili Ape - Mystery Chimpanzee or Gorilla. Hicks clarifies the issue as follows: the apes within 20 km or so of the roads flee humans almost without exception. However, chimpanzee skulls are 190 to 210 millimetres long, but Bili Ape skulls measured more than 220 millimetres, well beyond the end of the normal chimpanzee range. This would be the same subspecies as the Bili chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, and based on cultural similarities (see my Ph.D. thesis), probably even part of the same large population. About/By Camera, Image Credits: Bili; Dr Cleve Hicks; Screen Capture, Tags: apes, Bili Apes, Bili Forest, bush-meat, bushmeat, camera traps, chimpanzees, chimps, Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, giant chimpanzees, giant chimps, lion-eating chimpanzees, lion-eating chimps, Lukuru Foundation, poaching. Sorr, but chimpanzees hunting lions? Then there's the “lion killers”, who are larger, can't be taken down with poison arrows, and nest on the ground. The local folk-stories of the surrounding region make note of massive ape-like creatures that kill and hunt lions, catch fish, and — the stories go — howl at the moon.

While “strength” is something that can mean a lot of different things, I suppose, there is no doubt that chimpanzees possess a degree of physicality that is simply lacking in modern humans — as a notable primate biologist put it, they are very “explosive sprinters, climbers, and fighters”.

“What we have found is this completely new chimpanzee culture,” Hicks noted, when discussing the event in an interview back around the time that the work was done. One of the first researchers to get a close up view of the Bili Apes — pretty soon after a 5-year-long civil war ended in 2003 — was a speciality in primate behavior by the name of Shelly Williams. Many scientists have come to believe that the Bili ape is some kind of missing evolutionary link between chimps and humans.

As you can probably guess, while that would certainly made for a fascinating experience, it also puts the Bilis at great danger to bush-meat hunters and poachers — which have until very recently not operated in the very remote region where the Bili Apes live. Much longer/bigger than the tools usually seen used. With many local hunters mentioning an animal that looks something like a cross between a chimpanzee and a gorilla — an animal that apparently, according to the stories, is unaffected by poison darts, as the other apes are. For example, they build ground nests as gorillas do, using interwoven branches and/or saplings, bent down into a central bowl. Part One: Sometime after that, in 2004, a man by the name of Cleve Hicks from the University of Amsterdam spent ~18 months in the region field-watching the Bili apes. Nice post.A slight correction though: the photo of the baby chimpanzee tied to the papaya tree was taken by me in Buta in late 2007. In conservation terms this is a disaster.”.

In local parlance, the great apes of the Bili Forest fall into two distinct groups. “How can they get away with sleeping on the ground when there are lions, leopards, (and) golden cats around, as well as other dangerous animals like elephants and buffalo?” Hicks commented. Later observations by Hicks, however, reveal that they are knuckle-walkers like other chimpanzees that only occasionally walk bipedally. That’s completely ridiculous and nonsense. While you may be now making the assumption that such stories can’t possibly be true, you’d actually be wrong — a fair amount of research has gone into this subspecies of chimpanzee over the last few decades, and there is apparently quite a lot of truth to the stories. The cross river gorilla is a very endangered species with about 200-300 individuals left. There is little to no aggression, yet no fear either. Your email address will not be published. Hicks' group later confirmed and somewhat expanded those observations, saying that when they encountered a large group of Bili Apes in the deep forests (far from the roads and villages), they not only approached the humans, but would actually surround them with intent curiosity. The adult males show the greatest fear. They have brow-ridges running straight across and overhanging; uniform gray fur independently of age and sex, which suggests that graying takes place early in life-opposed to all known gorilla species, where only males gray as they age (graying restricted to their backs). It should be made clear that only one of the many skulls found at Bili had a sagittal crest, thus it cannot yet be considered typical for the population.



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