In today’s video, we will find out who would win a fight between a chimpanzee and a gorilla!
The Chimpanzee and gorilla inhabit some of the same regions on earth, but there have not been many observations of the two species interacting.
On the rare occasions that they come within sight of each other, they seem to avoid actual contact or interaction.
Humans are vastly familiar with Chimpanzees, perhaps because so much of their behavior is similar to people’s.
They are considered to be great apes, like gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos.
Both Chimpanzees and Gorillas roam and move more distinctively than us. They travel on the sole of each foot and the knuckles of their hands. This has earned them the title of knuckle-walkers.
Gorillas are peaceful, family-oriented, plant-eating animals that live in complex social groups. They are the largest and more formidable of all primates.
Although they are able to stand upright like us humans, gorillas prefer to walk using their hands as well as their legs.
Like all great apes, gorillas live and thrive in rainforests and are part of an ecosystem that depends on them to also thrive.
Size and Description
Chimpanzees vary considerably large in size and appearance. They usually stand approximately 3 – 5.5 feet (1 – 1.7 m) tall and weigh about 70 – 130 pounds (32 – 60 kg) on average.
Males tend to be heavier and much more robust than females.
Chimpanzee’s coat is mostly covered by brown or black hair, their face on the other hand is almost entirely bare except for a short beard.
Skin color is generally white except for the face, hands, and feet, which are black. The faces of younger chimps are pinkish or sometimes even pale white.
The forehead often becomes bald among older males and females, and the back becomes gray.
Gorillas are considerably larger compared to chimpanzees, and adult males can measure nearly 6 ft. tall (1.8m).
Their arm spans 7 – 8 ft. across (2.1 – 2.4 m).
Males weigh between 300 – 430 lbs (136 – 195 kg), and females weigh between 150 – 250 lbs (68 – 113 kg).
Gorillas are recognized by the thick black fur on their bodies. But they are similar to chimpanzees as their faces, palms of the hands, and bottoms of their feet are hairless.
The subspecies of Gorillas that live in mountainous regions have even thicker fur than their counterparts. This is to combat and protect them from the lower temperatures that higher altitudes can produce.
The Western gorilla primate species is a formidable size and is recognizable by its hands, which are proportionately large compared to the rest of its body, a short muzzle, and the very distinctive brow ridge.
They don’t have tails and have small ears and eyes, large nostrils, and jet black skin. In addition, they have exceptionally large thumbs and nails on all fingers.
The Western Gorillas are well known to have large and powerful-looking jaws, with broad teeth, which can be pretty intimidating.
Male gorillas over the age of twelve are called “silverbacks. “This is due to their back and rump hair, which turns a distinctive silver once they are over twelve and considered mature and dominant.
Range and Habitat
Chimpanzee lives in various regions of eastern and central Africa. Each subspecies has a different range.
The western subspecies range from Western Ghana to Southern Senegal.
It is not surprising that a Nigeria-Cameroon subspecies lives in areas of Nigeria and Cameroon, as their name suggests.
The main subspecies live from southern Cameroon to the western tip of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lastly, the eastern subspecies primarily live in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
Some Chimps inhabit tropical rainforests or scrub forests, while other subspecies live in grasslands, savannas, woodlands, or chaparral.
The subspecies that live in the mountains can survive comfortably in elevations up to 9,000 feet!
Luke Chimps Gorillas have various species and subspecies living in different ranges.
The forests of Western Africa are where the Western Gorilla chooses to live. Therefore, the Western Gorilla is more widespread than the Eastern Gorilla Subspecies.
You can find the Western Gorilla specifically in the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea.
The Eastern Gorilla inhabits a small range in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. While other subspecies choose to live in swamps or dense forests.
Like the Chimpanzee, some species live in mountainous regions, with the highest elevation recorded was about13,000 ft above sea level.
Gorillas prefer habitats like lowland swamps, bamboo forests, lowland forests, mountain forests, and similar areas.
Although they reside in forests and have the ability and strength to climb well, gorillas prefer to spend much of their time on the ground foraging and spending time together as a family group.
Diet
Chimps eat a huge variety of food, reaching around 80 different items, including seeds, fruit, leaves, bark, honey, flowers, and insects.
However, chimpanzees also kill other animals for meat, like monkeys or small antelope.
Chimpanzees usually eat independently, but occasionally chimps look for food together.
Gorillas primarily eat plants, making them mainly herbivores.
Therefore, the vast majority of their diet contains leaves, shoots, stems, and other plant parts.
Gorillas sometimes choose to eat fruit, but it does not make up a large portion of their diet. The exact plants eaten vary by season, species, and region.
Gorillas also occasionally eat ants, termites, and other insects. The plants they consume contain lots of moisture, so they seldom need to seek a water source or drink water.
Behavior
Chimpanzees are incredibly sociable animals and value the family group. They are mainly active during the daylight hours.
Chimps spend their time grazing, grooming, eating, and actively being social and playing with each other.
The habitat and food supply play a significant role in the size of a group that can range from 15 to 120 Chimpanzees.
They are aggressively territorial and have no tolerance for outsiders. They have been known to defend their territory to the death.
To prepare for sleep, chimpanzees will make nests up in trees. They will bend branches and skillfully create a safe platform to rest and sleep on. They build a nest every night usually in a different tree.
Although most of the time is spent sleeping and eating up in the trees, they usually travel on the ground as a group following certain paths.
Chimpanzees are instinctually social animals and gather in groups of 5 – 15 individuals. Each group consists mainly of females and their babies, with one dominant male to head the group.
Western gorillas are awake and active during the day. At night they create nests where they rest and sleep similar to chimps.
The nests are soft cushions built in the trees or on the ground, with branches and leaves. While lightweight gorillas usually hang out of tree branches using their arms.
Typically, these animals are relatively peaceful, friendly, and shy. However, they emit loud growling sounds and screams if threatened. They have enormous power and the potential to be extremely dangerous when attacked. While not actively aggressive, they will defend their family and group without hesitation.
To scare trespassers away from their territory or showcase their strength, male gorillas stand straight, beating their chests with their fists. Remember that they stand on average 6ft tall and have a seven to eight-foot wingspan! I imagine that would be a pretty intimidating experience.
Now for the real question, who would win a fight between a Chimpanzee and a Gorilla?
Unfortunately, neither species is intelligent enough to use weapons, though chimps make and use simple tools.
Although larger and much stronger, Gorillas don’t have a killer instinct. They don’t actively hunt any other animals for food, unlike a chimpanzee.
Their days mainly consist of eating leaves and stalks and sleeping.
Gorilla males will occasionally fight for dominance, but it will usually end up without any party getting killed or even greatly injured. Thus one of the males will leave the group admitting defeat.
Gorillas are not as aggressive as chimpanzees, but they are much bigger, stronger, and have more robust teeth.
The strength of a gorilla isn’t known exactly, but it’s easily more than enough to kill a chimpanzee.
Chimpanzees are aggressive muscular creatures, and when they attack they attack to cause injury. They have five times the strength of an adult male human, and they can bite with a strong set of canines. These protruding canines have a bite force 20-times more than humans.
A chimp could perhaps cause some harm to a gorilla due to strong bites and muscular body, but it’s highly improbable for a chimp to kill a Gorilla. The gorilla is bigger and much more powerful.
In my opinion, there’s no way a chimpanzee can successfully win a fight against a gorilla!
A gorilla is a naturally much calmer creature, but a chimpanzee would undoubtedly be killed with one powerful punch from a grumpy gorilla.
Some groups overlap In Congo and Uganda, rarely overlap, and it is here that we see some behavior when they cross paths. When Gorillas appear in Chimpanzee inhabited areas, chimpanzees seem to already know they are physically outperformed and move away.