Comments on: MQ News: Sky Terrors, Tigers, Killer Chimps and Cujo

By: CryptoInformant 2.0

CryptoInformant 2.0 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:19:32 +0000

Kittens, Mystery-Man, thank you for clearing up a few errors in what I said – I had not quite factored in domestication as a behavioral factor here. It’s interesting to know that animals that have been domesticated become more dangerous because of that when they are reintroduced into a wild setting.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:18:18 +0000

MattBille,

I agree. I, also, think that a bat with a 12 ft wingspan is possible, but I doubt that its body could be more than toddler-sized.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:24:51 +0000

I have a hard time taking “Terror From The Skies” very seriously. In the handful of cases reporting something along these lines, there is no report (including the Mothman events) that discusses wings adequate to make a human-sized creature fly.
Birds standing as tall as a short human can fly with a wingspan of six feet or so, but we are talking about long-legged cranes, storks, etc. where the build is nothing like a human’s: a sandhill crane’s wings lift, at most, 15 pounds into the air. Argentavis magnificens needed a span of 23 feet or so to get 150 lbs into the air, and some paleontologists think it needed downslopes or headwinds to get airborne at all. It was a great glider but not a strong flier. (BBC, 7/2/07). A bat with a six-foot span stands less than 2 feet tall. I don’t reject Sanderson’s claim of a bat with a span of ten or twelve feet, but it wouldn’t approach the standing height of a human. Startled witnesses would be expected to exaggerate the wingspan of something weird, not diminish it. Even Nature’s weirdest creatures (and some are very weird indeed) can’t ignore physics.

By: DWA

DWA — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:01:47 +0000

Can’t comment on flying humanoid forms. Yet.

But as to

1. Chimps. We encountered a band of wild rhesus monkeys while paddling the Silver River in FL some time back. Don’t know what has become of that troop (apparently “founded” by escapees from the nearby animal/amusement park). But the glimpse we got told us that they were doing fine. And, of course, several species of primate other than us live where it regularly snows in winter. Lions and leopards (except, of course, for the Amur leopard) seem to be kept out of more temperate environments more by human will than by their ability to live there. The big cats at the National Zoo in DC love cold weather and often lounge about outside in it. And the tigers are Sumatran; not much snow there. I wouldn’t make any bets about chimps’ ability to survive in reasonably warm temperate zone environments.

2. Dogs. I had two hunting dogs – maybe lost; that happens a lot – accost me in the Crawford Mtn. area of the George Washington NF in VA last year. I was backpacking, and had trekking poles. My buddy and I were separated by some distance at the time. The poles might have been what kept them away. I don’t want to think about what would have happened had there been more of them.

By: lincoln s

lincoln s — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:57:09 +0000

As to chimps living in america I don’t see what’s stopping them. I remember a picture of skunkape being compared to a chimp and they were strikingly similar. so the discovery of chimps here wouldn’t really suprising.

By: fossilhunter

fossilhunter — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:52:15 +0000

Greetings Cryptidsrus & All!
Cheetah, the chimp from the Tarzan movies, is currently living in Palm Springs, California at a chimp sanctuary. For more info see the Fresh Air story on NPR from Monday, July 13. They also talked about grey whales becoming social with people in boats in Baja California.
Feral dogs are common near East St. Louis, Illinois (near me) and packs are seen making their way across interstates there. A mix of abandoned property and “wild” areas are a perfect mix for them. They can rob the dumpsters at restaurants, then fade into the woods and wetlands. I’ve seen a female with pups picking their way along a highway, trying to cross, with concerned folks stopped nearby, hopefully calling the Humane Society. There are a mix of breeds, along with the “urban hybrid” style that tends to develop among such populations. I don’t remember the precise traits, other than a tail curled up over the back. Similar to a Pariah Dog or Dingo.

Come on folks!! Get those pets “fixed” and rescue a dog (or cat) if you want another pet!!!

By: mikfoss

mikfoss — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:00:14 +0000

Yeah, I looked it up cause I knew I had read something recently on this and it turns out it was in People 4-27-2009 there was an article about a dog who was lost at sea, was wild on an island for over four months, and then went back home and fell back into domestication almost instantly.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:26:30 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Kittenz!!!

I was simply reporting what I read.

That is the reason I asked—I didn’t think it was “right.”

By: Alligator

Alligator — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:51:42 +0000

Kittenz,
Your insight and knowledge of animals has always impressed me. Are you by chance a vet or otherwise professionally involved with wildlife and animals? Even if you are a lay person, that is okay. Lay people are extremely valuable and helpful in gathering and disseminating data on wildlife. I was just curious. I’d agree, it should be illegal to keep chimps as pets, period.

Several years ago, we had a pet spider monkey get loose in our neck of the woods. It was out for a few days and showed up a half mile away. It literally strolled into someone’s yard and bit a six year old girl who was playing and minding her own business. At first she was excited and delighted to see a monkey walking up to her. The monkey was captured right after that but it cost the owner a lot legal fees and medical bills. I think the day is approaching (too late in many cases) when exotic animals will be regulated more severely and certain ones will be banned outright.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:05:30 +0000

ood, and they must learn survival skills from adults – either from other adult chimps, or from their human captors. Unlike monkeys, a chimp could probably not find enough food to survive if it suddenly found itself free in an unfamiliar forested area, after having been fed by humans all its life. Monkeys have shorter lifespans and require much less food than chimps, and they rely much more on instinctive behavior than do chimps.

Another point: chimps require the company of others. They are very social animals and escaped chimps almost always eventually seek human companionship. Even if a chimp escaped its captivity, it would not have the social stimulation that it would need, on its own in the wild.

As far as troops of chimps living wild here, that is unlikely in the extreme. In parts of Africa, where they are native, chimps can be hard to locate in the lthe jungle. But in Florida, where they are not, they would have to learn how to live off the land, from scratch, and they would certainly be noticed. You can’t just plunk a troop of several 200 lb. animals down in a forest and expect that they will survive.

So – monkeys living wild in the USA, yes, It’s even documented. Chimps? Except for the occasional escapee that might survive long enough to become a “sighting” before it dies of starvation or exposure, no.