Comments on: “Chimp” With Club Update

By: sschaper

sschaper — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:55:57 +0000

Most people only know chimps from TV, where they are nearly always infant chimps. A full-grown male chimp is as tall as a man, if standing up (which unlike the bonono, they can’t do for very long – bonono’s walk upright in order to carry sticks), and rather more massive.

I think we humans tend to over-estimate the size of animals we see when we are scared or startled. (that is more of an aside)

An escaped chimp scared and engaging in a charging display seems the most likely explanation for this one.

By: Dark-Obsessor

Dark-Obsessor — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:53:14 +0000

So, is that a photo of the ape or something…?

By: jayman

jayman — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:56:07 +0000

This is southern California… must be a performing chimp on the club circuit.

By: Sky King

Sky King — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:37:36 +0000

# Mausinn Says:
The area in mention is surrounded by a country club. My guess comes to two possibilities. One, and escaped pet chimp, or a Sasquatch that is looking for a spot on the next U.S.Open.

If there’s anything to the vocalizations I’m hearing late at night here in NM, we have a Sasquatch that does a good Tammy Wynette imitation, so why not the U.S. Open?

Maybe this is Bigfoot’s “Breakout Year”. Where’s Arthur Godfrey when we really need him?

By: harleyb

harleyb — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 02:39:08 +0000

I wonder if chimps are smart enough to play golf.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:45:52 +0000

If it was a full fledged chimp then I do believe it had a stick, though it could have been a good sized stick. Here in America, where we don’t get a lot of interaction with other primates, we tend to place them in the same “category” as most other animals, incapable of using tools. They have proven that chimps do use some pretty decent looking tools, though very simple in concept. If he saw them before they saw him, he might have been a bit scared, nervous… and grabbed the stick, as chimps do to look meaner, and was just “waving it around”. You probably have seen those documentaries, mostly lifting it into the air and pounding the ground, with a loose grip. Sometimes losing it in the excitement. To people here that is something out of the ordinary. So, the chimp had a club. Now if the club was actually fashioned as such, then I think we are working with another hoax or something of that nature.

By: larzker

larzker — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:11:16 +0000

I’ve been to Thousand Oaks hundreds of times. It’s just north of where I used to live. There are plenty of hills and mountains for a chimp to hide out much less in someone’s backyard.

Bigfoot, are you serious? There was a tiger that roamed throughout nearby Simi Valley a couple years ago. It was finally shot. Or maybe it wasn’t a tiger, maybe it was the only Sabertooth to survive the Pliestoscene.

In 2005 there were chimps that escaped a chimp sanctuary about 40 miles north of 1000 oaks. Except maybe they weren’t chimps- maybe they were baby gigantopithecus.

By: cradossk

cradossk — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:05:08 +0000

Going out on a limb here, but if one identified the animal as a chimp (arguably one of the most easily identifiable primate)…. wouldn’t we assume that they are correct? People aren’t stupid and I don’t think its up to us to second guess someone else’s identification of this animal, particularly since none of us have seen the said animal.

Chimps have been known to readily adopt human behaviour. If they see humans using an implement, they will attempt to emulate its use. Chimps have even been known to take up smoking to emulate human behaviour!

How can we assume that this isn’t an escaped pet / show animal?

By: Illuvatar

Illuvatar — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:29:21 +0000

There once was a man who claimed he observed two Bigfoot like creatures who were both under 5 feet tall. I think they were both carrying sticks too. I read about it in the book by Rene Dahinden. If I’m wrong someone please correct me.

By: shovethenos

shovethenos — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:07:47 +0000

According to the BFRO database Ventura County is pretty sparse as far as sightings are concerned, only two documented in the database. So maybe it really is just a chimp looking for some tee time. But who knows, California is second only to Washington for US sightings.