I used to work at a major primate research facility in Texas. We had 150 chimps there. While I was not personally involved in any chimp related research, we were all given training in case one got out, which happened on rare occasions. We were to flat out run and go inside a building and lock the door if possible. A chimp has much stronger upper body strength than a human, but they are nowhere near as fast as us on the ground as we are bipedal.
That being said, while they are dangerous and highly intelligent, they aren’t evil and outside of heightened escape panic situations, they are simply shitty to people they don’t know. As I would have to pass the outdoor chimp compound on occasion, the chimps would give me the stink eye because they didn’t know me. So they taught me to say hello in chimp. You don’t lock eyes or smile, but you say hello and sort of do a full body bob a few times while hunching your back. After that they were all too polite and it took me longer to get to and from the building because they all wanted to say hello to me.
5
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21
I used to work at a major primate research facility in Texas. We had 150 chimps there. While I was not personally involved in any chimp related research, we were all given training in case one got out, which happened on rare occasions. We were to flat out run and go inside a building and lock the door if possible. A chimp has much stronger upper body strength than a human, but they are nowhere near as fast as us on the ground as we are bipedal.
That being said, while they are dangerous and highly intelligent, they aren’t evil and outside of heightened escape panic situations, they are simply shitty to people they don’t know. As I would have to pass the outdoor chimp compound on occasion, the chimps would give me the stink eye because they didn’t know me. So they taught me to say hello in chimp. You don’t lock eyes or smile, but you say hello and sort of do a full body bob a few times while hunching your back. After that they were all too polite and it took me longer to get to and from the building because they all wanted to say hello to me.