Primatologist Mireya Mayor breaks down 10 monkey and ape attacks in movies, such as "King Kong," based on realism.
Mayor debunks common misconceptions about the behavior and appearance of the great apes, such as the brutish strength and massive size of the gorilla-like ape, King Kong, in "King Kong" (2005), with Jack Black and Naomi Watts; the violent rampage of Gordy the Chimpanzee in "Nope," starring Daniel Kaluuya, Steven Yeun, and Keke Palmer; and the intelligence and communication skills of chimpanzees and bonobos in both "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," with James Franco. She looks at the realism of monkey and ape attacks against humans and other animals, such the plausibility of a reptile-like Godzilla fighting an ape-like Kong in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"; the fight between a gorilla and leopard in "Tarzan" (1999); and the mandrills attacking humans in "Jumanji: The Next Level," starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Awkwafina. Mayor also breaks down the evolution of ape and monkeys, such as the common ancestor of humans and apes, the hominin, in "2001: A Space Odyssey"; the Gigantopithecus in "The Jungle Book" (2016); and the capuchin monkey in "Night at the Museum," with Ben Stiller.
Mayor is a primatologist and explorer who has gone on expeditions to study apes and monkeys such as mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and the white-faced saki monkey. She is a wildlife correspondent for National Geographic, where she was also part of a research expedition that discovered a new species of lemur, considered to be the world's smallest primate. She wrote the book "Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer," with a foreword by Jane Goodall. She is also the executive director for strategic projects and events and director of the office of public policy events at Florida International University.
You can follow Mireya here:
https://www.mireyamayor.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mireyamayor/
Mayor debunks common misconceptions about the behavior and appearance of the great apes, such as the brutish strength and massive size of the gorilla-like ape, King Kong, in "King Kong" (2005), with Jack Black and Naomi Watts; the violent rampage of Gordy the Chimpanzee in "Nope," starring Daniel Kaluuya, Steven Yeun, and Keke Palmer; and the intelligence and communication skills of chimpanzees and bonobos in both "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," with James Franco. She looks at the realism of monkey and ape attacks against humans and other animals, such the plausibility of a reptile-like Godzilla fighting an ape-like Kong in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"; the fight between a gorilla and leopard in "Tarzan" (1999); and the mandrills attacking humans in "Jumanji: The Next Level," starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Awkwafina. Mayor also breaks down the evolution of ape and monkeys, such as the common ancestor of humans and apes, the hominin, in "2001: A Space Odyssey"; the Gigantopithecus in "The Jungle Book" (2016); and the capuchin monkey in "Night at the Museum," with Ben Stiller.
Mayor is a primatologist and explorer who has gone on expeditions to study apes and monkeys such as mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and the white-faced saki monkey. She is a wildlife correspondent for National Geographic, where she was also part of a research expedition that discovered a new species of lemur, considered to be the world's smallest primate. She wrote the book "Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer," with a foreword by Jane Goodall. She is also the executive director for strategic projects and events and director of the office of public policy events at Florida International University.
You can follow Mireya here:
https://www.mireyamayor.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mireyamayor/
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FunTranscript
00:00 [dramatic music]
00:02 We're seeing a spear, and that is also something
00:10 that chimps have been documented to make.
00:12 Hi, I'm Dr. Maria Mayer, and I'm a primatologist
00:15 and National Geographic explorer.
00:17 I have studied in South America, the white-faced sake,
00:20 and headed to Congo to study the Western lowland gorillas
00:23 as well as mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
00:25 Today we'll be looking at monkey and ape attacks in movies
00:29 and judge how real they are.
00:30 [dramatic music]
00:35 Gorillas spend most of their time on the ground.
00:39 I have observed them climbing trees
00:42 with a lot of skill and dexterity,
00:45 but scaling the Empire State Building,
00:49 especially an animal that size, not too probable.
00:53 [gorilla roaring]
00:57 [dramatic music]
00:59 There's this iconic visual that you see in movies
01:02 of gorillas beating on their chest,
01:04 but it's not really a form of aggression, if you will.
01:08 It's more of a warning.
01:09 [gorilla roaring]
01:12 And while they're incredibly strong,
01:17 and believe me, I get adrenaline rush
01:19 every time I'm charged, they're not violent animals.
01:23 The only time that I've ever really witnessed
01:25 a gorilla be aggressive is when another male tries
01:28 to sort of hone in and take one of their females
01:32 and really kind of destroy that family unit.
01:34 Yes, these are really strong animals,
01:37 but there's also a very gentle and nurturing side to them
01:40 that you don't often see in the media.
01:43 [gorilla roaring]
01:46 King Kong is depicted as being 25 feet tall,
01:52 which is nowhere near even what we know
01:55 as the largest ape from the fossil record,
01:58 which is Giganopithecus.
01:59 It's estimated to be 10 feet tall,
02:02 disappeared about 300,000 years ago,
02:05 and is not even half the size
02:07 of what King Kong is depicted to be,
02:09 because this is such an iconic film,
02:11 and they do make an attempt to bring in gorilla qualities,
02:15 such as that protective and gentle nature
02:18 that he shows Andarro.
02:20 I'm gonna give it a three out of 10 just for that.
02:22 [gun firing]
02:28 In this scene, the chimp is triggered
02:30 by the popping sound of a balloon.
02:32 So absolutely, if he associates that sound,
02:36 the popping of a balloon, with like a trainer
02:38 who would beat him or that sort of thing,
02:41 it's gonna elicit a super aggressive reaction,
02:44 especially in the entertainment business
02:45 where so many of these animals are abused, essentially.
02:50 - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Gordy, no!
02:53 No!
02:54 Get down, get down, get!
02:55 - Gordy's size and appearance
02:57 definitely looks realistic here,
02:59 and even the way that it moves, the way that it sounds.
03:02 So chimps are extremely communicative,
03:04 and they send different messages to their group members
03:08 through different pant hoots.
03:10 I would say they did a really good job
03:11 in at least depicting the sounds right.
03:14 [chimp squeaking]
03:17 [chimp grunting]
03:19 I mean, when it comes to strength,
03:20 there's really nothing that a human can do
03:22 to protect themself from a chimp.
03:25 However, not looking aggressive,
03:28 and in fact, like the kid does in this scene,
03:30 sort of cowering down, looking smaller,
03:33 and looking submissive,
03:34 was probably the right way to go,
03:36 because the last thing that you wanna do
03:38 is be threatening to an animal that's already agitated
03:42 and coming at you.
03:44 [chimp grunting]
03:46 This clip is so hard to watch on so many levels,
03:49 starting with a chimp dressed up in clothing
03:51 and a party hat,
03:52 and then this sort of exaggerated violence.
03:56 Like, I wouldn't say that chimps
03:59 are generally prone to being violent,
04:01 although they definitely have the capacity and the strength,
04:04 and even though there are some reported cases in the wild
04:07 where chimps have attacked humans,
04:10 this is such a rarity,
04:12 and I think we see that through the studies
04:14 of my good friend, Dr. Jane Goodall,
04:16 who spent decades in close proximity to these animals
04:20 and really revealed that gentler side.
04:23 Even in the way that everything is depicted,
04:26 I think the message isn't right.
04:30 I have to give it a zero.
04:31 [chimp grunting]
04:34 I love this clip,
04:39 because one of the things that you see happening
04:42 is that the gorilla takes great care and concern
04:46 for this infant,
04:48 and they have these massive canines that you see here.
04:52 So they're very powerful animals,
04:55 but they're not predators.
04:56 [chimp grunting]
04:59 Leopards are, in fact, the only predator to a gorilla,
05:05 but it's not often that you see this interaction.
05:08 Funny enough, I am one of a,
05:10 really a few of a handful of scientists
05:13 who observe Western lowland gorillas in the wild
05:16 and actually saw a leopard attack a silverback gorilla.
05:21 The gorilla escaped, but not unscathed,
05:24 and had a massive wound to its stomach,
05:26 which took months and months to heal.
05:29 It is actually very dangerous to the gorilla
05:31 when those kind of interactions happen.
05:33 So in this scene where you see Tarzan being raised by apes,
05:40 that is highly unlikely and almost impossible.
05:44 Because humans are highly altricial, right?
05:47 They really depend on the mother,
05:48 and all of our behavior is learned.
05:51 There is no way that a gorilla would possibly be able
05:54 to teach a human everything that they would need
05:57 in order to survive in the wild.
05:58 This movie holds too special a place in my heart,
06:01 and I have to give it a 10.
06:02 [gorilla growling]
06:08 [gorilla growling]
06:12 There's ape shelters that might house gorillas
06:15 and orangs and chimpanzees,
06:17 but they would never be in the same enclosure.
06:20 However, there are places where you do find
06:24 gorillas and chimpanzees coexisting,
06:27 although not often overlapping in the same territory.
06:30 [gorilla growling]
06:37 The assertion of dominance is pretty prevalent
06:41 in chimpanzees because there is a hierarchical structure
06:44 where you have an alpha male,
06:45 and then everything that follows suit.
06:48 The way it's depicted in the scene,
06:50 it really depends on the alpha male.
06:52 Just like humans,
06:53 chimpanzees have very individual personalities,
06:57 and you have some, well, that are complete jerks,
07:00 and they will pick on another group member
07:03 if they so want to.
07:06 And even though most people are aware of the term alpha male,
07:10 the truth is is that females are also in charge,
07:14 and they are also helping to lead the group.
07:16 And so oftentimes, they will choose and prefer leaders
07:20 who are generally a more gentle alpha male,
07:24 although they still will assert their dominance.
07:26 You don't often see where they're just picking
07:28 on a particular individual in the group.
07:31 [gorilla growling]
07:34 [dramatic music]
07:36 This one is a hard one to have a real reaction to
07:40 because it is so beyond the realm of possibility.
07:43 In "Planet of the Apes," we see interspecies collaboration.
07:47 There are some examples, like chimpanzees and gorillas
07:51 actually helping each other,
07:52 but interspecies collaboration and altruism,
07:57 while not unheard of, it's really not the norm.
07:59 While I'm not anticipating chimps
08:01 overtaking our society anytime soon,
08:04 there is something to be said
08:06 about the high level of intelligence
08:09 that chimps do display and are capable of,
08:13 even in comparison to humans, which isn't really fair
08:17 because intelligence is really a product
08:20 of an animal's environment.
08:22 I'm gonna be overly generous and give it a two out of 10.
08:25 [gorilla growling]
08:28 [dramatic music]
08:31 Seeing this ape help a juvenile ape
08:35 is something that I've witnessed many, many times,
08:39 but that's all circumstantial.
08:40 Of course, they need to be genetically related,
08:44 but more often than not, you see the,
08:47 for example, silverback helping the young ones,
08:51 really teaching them the ropes,
08:53 getting them out of trouble, out of danger.
08:55 The cutest scene I've ever seen in the wild
08:57 is the silverback teaching the young males
09:00 how to beat on their chest.
09:02 [gorilla growling]
09:05 Apes actually have very emotional expressions,
09:12 and you can definitely see when an ape is angry
09:16 or happy or shy.
09:17 It's sometimes easy to misread
09:21 the facial expressions of an ape.
09:22 Like, most people will see a chimp or a gorilla smiling,
09:26 and they think, "Oh, that's a happy ape,"
09:28 and it's quite the contrary.
09:30 So you have to know what you're looking for,
09:32 but so far as an array of emotions,
09:35 apes will definitely show it.
09:36 [gorilla growling]
09:39 So I have never witnessed an ape
09:47 fighting with some kind of a reptile.
09:50 However, if the situation should arise,
09:54 there's no question that a gorilla is powerful
09:58 and intelligent and I would think has the upper hand
10:02 that I know of.
10:03 There is no reptile the size of Godzilla,
10:06 so I think they're good.
10:07 Probably gonna make a lot of people mad,
10:09 but I'm gonna give this a one out of 10 for realism.
10:12 And the only part to me that felt realistic
10:14 was this sweet interaction between the older ape
10:17 and the juvenile.
10:18 [gorilla growling]
10:21 [dramatic music]
10:24 Funny enough, this is actually very realistic
10:29 in that chimps are known to organize hunts
10:33 where every individual has a role to play,
10:37 a driver, a catcher, almost like bait and instigators.
10:42 Every single one of them has a purpose.
10:45 So the idea that chimps would organize themselves
10:50 in such a way and plan a hunt is very realistic.
10:54 [gorilla growling]
10:59 Koba is a bonobo and bonobos are actually known
11:04 for make love, not war.
11:07 And what's funny to me is that the look of Koba
11:11 is very aggressive.
11:12 It's not the sort of gentler, softer look
11:16 that we know bonobos to have.
11:18 [gorilla growling]
11:21 Chimps are highly arboreal, so they are in fact very skilled
11:28 and very agile up in the trees
11:30 and they can move through them very quickly.
11:33 [dramatic music]
11:35 So nonverbal communication and gesturing like we see here
11:44 is actually not uncommon.
11:46 While we generally hear chimps being really loud and vocal,
11:50 there's also much more subtle ways
11:52 in which they are able to relay a message and communicate.
11:55 So Caesar eventually teaches a sign language
11:59 to the other apes that we all know,
12:01 like the famous Coco the gorilla,
12:03 learning how to sign language.
12:04 And chimpanzees also have been taught how to sign,
12:07 but this is not something that naturally occurs in nature.
12:12 This is something that is learned behavior.
12:14 So if a chimpanzee is taught sign language,
12:18 they are in fact very capable of passing that on
12:22 to another generation of chimpanzees
12:24 because it's all learned.
12:25 [gorilla growling]
12:28 So chimps aren't necessarily known for sophisticated tools,
12:37 but we know the famous story of the little fishing tool
12:41 that Jane Goodall documented
12:44 with chimps fishing for termites.
12:47 And in this case, we're seeing a spear.
12:49 And that is also something
12:51 that chimps have been documented to make.
12:53 And they use them to actually spear galagos
12:56 out of tree hollows.
12:58 You know, looking at Caesar the alpha male
13:04 in "Planet of the Apes,"
13:06 there is a very realistic appearance.
13:09 When I look at Caesar,
13:11 it's almost like the eyes are slightly more human-like.
13:14 They've been softened up a little bit.
13:17 Overall, the features that we see in "Planet of the Apes,"
13:21 to me, tend to look and appear a little bit more human-like
13:25 than we see in wild chimps.
13:27 It really shows what chimpanzees are intelligent enough
13:31 and capable of doing,
13:33 which is to organize a hunt, make spears.
13:37 So yeah, I'm thinking nine out of 10.
13:39 [monkey screeching]
13:42 - Those are mandrills.
13:43 We should go. - Go!
13:44 - Go! - Go!
13:45 - Go!
13:46 - Mandrills have a very distinctive look
13:48 with unusually colorful, almost painted faces.
13:53 So they got that right,
13:54 but the behavior, completely unrealistic.
13:57 Mandrills are the largest of all the monkeys,
14:00 but they are so shy and reclusive
14:03 that the chances of you ever observing a mandrill
14:06 in the wild is pretty much null.
14:10 You wouldn't expect that when you look at their canines,
14:13 but they have an omnivorous diet.
14:15 They will eat fruits, roots, insects, reptiles,
14:18 and amphibians.
14:19 While they're really large animals
14:21 with these massive canines,
14:23 they're not actual predators.
14:25 [monkey screeching]
14:28 The idea of this mob of mandrills,
14:31 they often move in very large groups.
14:33 Sometimes these groups are more than 100 individuals.
14:37 Swinging through this structure and trees
14:39 is just completely unrealistic.
14:41 They spent most of their time on the ground.
14:44 The easiest way to tell the difference
14:46 between an ape and a monkey
14:48 is the presence of a tail and monkeys.
14:51 And mandrills are old world monkeys,
14:54 which is different from new world monkeys.
14:56 And really the easiest way to remember that
14:59 is that old world monkeys are from Africa.
15:02 So they're more closely related to apes
15:04 while new world monkeys live in South America
15:07 and are not as closely related to the apes.
15:10 I'm gonna give this two and a half out of 10
15:12 because the CGI is pretty good,
15:15 but the behavior, completely unrealistic.
15:18 [monkey screeching]
15:21 What we see here is a group of hominins in Africa,
15:27 and they're made to really look like apes.
15:31 Hominins, of course, are part of our ancestral lineage.
15:34 Humans are upright and bipedal.
15:37 This has a more ape-like posturing and movement to them,
15:42 and that is actually based on real anatomy
15:44 from fossil findings.
15:46 Humans and apes do share an ancestral lineage,
15:49 and humans are part of the great apes,
15:51 but that's not to say that humans evolved from apes,
15:55 which is, I think, a very common narrative.
15:59 So we diverged about five to seven million years ago,
16:02 and that led to what we know of as apes today.
16:06 [dramatic music]
16:09 There was this previous notion that what separated humans
16:18 from the rest of the animal kingdom
16:20 was the ability to make and use tools.
16:23 And as we know, Jane Goodall then observed
16:26 the chimpanzee making and using a tool.
16:30 So that was the famous question,
16:32 do we, you know, redefine tool,
16:35 or do we change the definition of what it means to be human?
16:38 [chimpanzee screeching]
16:42 What we see here is that there are two rivaling groups
16:47 competing for a watering hole.
16:49 Some apes are territorial, but certainly not all of them.
16:52 So you have orangutans, for example, in Indonesia,
16:55 who are not known for being territorial,
16:58 but then gibbons, which are highly territorial,
17:01 but chimpanzees are also extremely territorial.
17:04 Chimpanzees are known for patrolling an area
17:08 and actually attacking and sometimes even killing
17:11 what they perceive to be a rival in their territory.
17:15 What we do know is that there,
17:18 no other species of ape is more cooperative than humans.
17:23 So much of what we're seeing in this scene
17:26 is actually possible and even probable
17:30 in some of the ape species.
17:32 I'm actually gonna give this one a five out of 10.
17:35 - Hey, Dexter, you want a kibble cookie?
17:38 It's falling off.
17:39 - What a good boy.
17:40 That's okay.
17:42 - This is so funny and strangely accurate
17:45 because capuchin monkeys are unbelievably mischievous
17:50 and clever and smart,
17:52 which are actually quite popular
17:54 in the entertainment industry
17:56 because of the fact that they are so trainable.
17:58 There are numerous examples of primates snatching things
18:01 like macaques in Bali,
18:04 or I've seen adolescent gorillas run right up
18:07 and take a camera out of somebody's hand.
18:08 Primates, especially when they're habituated to humans,
18:12 can be fearless and they'll go right up to a human
18:14 and steal whatever's in your hand.
18:16 - I need those.
18:17 - Hey, don't encourage him.
18:19 - So believe it or not,
18:21 this clip is actually quite realistic.
18:25 And I have been in situations in South America
18:28 where they have in fact taunted
18:31 and almost recruited each other
18:33 into the taunting and throwing stuff.
18:35 It's a great movie, but they used a real monkey
18:38 and monkeys have no role in the entertainment industry.
18:42 So zero out of 10.
18:44 So I've seen a lot of orangs in the wild,
18:51 but that is by far the largest
18:54 and definitely seems to be more of a depiction
18:58 of Giganopithecus.
19:00 Despite the fact that Giganopithecus
19:02 is the largest known primate fossil,
19:05 you would think it's more closely related to gorillas,
19:08 which are the largest living ape.
19:10 However, genetically, they're actually much more
19:13 closely related to orangutans.
19:15 Here's a skull of an orang.
19:17 Now you can see this is much smaller
19:20 than what we're seeing in that scene,
19:22 but we don't have a skull for Giganopithecus.
19:25 In fact, we don't have any bone remains either.
19:27 All we have are the teeth.
19:30 So if you see the canines here, which are quite large,
19:34 you can imagine then what a Giganopithecus canine
19:39 would look like.
19:40 I'm gonna rate this one one out of 10.
19:43 There was really nothing that realistic about it.
19:47 I think my favorite ape clip is from
19:50 "Dawn of Planet of the Apes,"
19:52 just because the idea of these chimps organizing a hunt
19:57 and having specific roles and making a spear,
20:02 it's all so realistic.