# chumans and humillas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172 "2005-08-22T20:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/21 "2005-08-23T06:57:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Sure. A dog can do plenty of damage, but we know people abuse them that way sometimes. I think it’s probably an addition disincentive that some apes could pull your arms off before you had time to remove your pants. A dog is a domesticated animal. It is submissive to humans and conditioned to tolerate us and obey us aside from anything else. In contrast people don’t abuse wild wolves much. Similarly horses also get abused, and they are much larger than dogs or apes. That was my original point. It’s domesticated animals that people have sex with, not animals in general. I doubt if anyone has ever had sex with a wild animal of any size. Apes are by no stretch domesticated and as such I doubt that anyone has had sex with an ape. > [@](#): > > I heared on NPR that the anti-cloning bill has a provision for stiff penalties for creating chimeras (sic) by crossbreeding humans and animals. Chimaeras aren’t crossbreeds though, they are animals that result from the fusion of two distinct embryos. An ability to create a viable chimaera is a strong indicator of hybridisation potential, but it doesn’t prove the issue either way. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/22 "2005-08-23T07:18:40Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I doubt if anyone has ever had sex with a wild animal of any size. Surely anyone who’s had access to the internet for any length of time has, at some point, read about how randy dolphins, sea-turtles and the occasional sea lion can get. Land animals can be quite prudish, but I tell ya, those ocean critters are total floozies. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/23 "2005-08-23T14:33:00Z")
And I be their queen! ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/24 "2005-08-23T15:53:22Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Chimaeras aren’t crossbreeds though, they are animals that result from the fusion of two distinct embryos. An ability to create a viable chimaera is a strong indicator of hybridisation potential, but it doesn’t prove the issue either way. Note my parenthetical remark that they were using the term incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/25 "2005-08-23T19:35:07Z")
Even if it was possible, they couldn’t be as cool as ligers, which are pretty much my favorite animals. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/26 "2005-08-23T19:48:48Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > Even if it was possible, they couldn’t be as cool as ligers, which are pretty much my favorite animals. Yep, them [ligers](http://www.greenapple.com/~jorp/amzanim/cross02a.htm) are some impressive looking beasts!! ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/27 "2005-08-23T19:56:17Z")
Well, I dunno about real life, but in fantasy, sci-fi, and science fantasy, humans are pretty much the most prolific, hybridizable species in existance. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/28 "2005-08-23T20:00:14Z")
I’m not sure if I could contribute anything useful to this thread… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/29 "2005-08-23T20:30:09Z")
Here’s a couple of magazines… ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/30 "2005-08-23T20:45:08Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > I’m not sure if I could contribute anything useful to this thread… 😉 Perhaps you can’t, but I’d like to meet your parents. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/31 "2005-10-21T16:53:39Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Probably. There are several suspected chimp/bonobo hybrids in various institurions around the world but it’s hard to prove conclusively. The trouble is that until quite recently nobody bothered much with classifying chimps. They were all chimps and all housed together regardless of where they were captured. As a result almost all captive chimps these days are subspecific hybdids at the very least. That makes it next to impossible to prove beyond doubt whether an individual is a cross-specific hybrid. It’s like trying to establish whether the offpsringof a mongrel dog is the result of mating with a wolf. The genetics of the parents are such a mess that there aren’t any reliable markers to work with. > > These days of course chimps are segregated based on subspecies so they are more useful for conservation work, so there’s no chance at all of a two different species being housed otgether an allowed to breed. You’d need to have some valid reason for deliberately hybridising for that to occur in most places. > > So we’ll probably never know for certain, but it seems very likely. At the very least we can say that nobody is surpised that such hybrids are thought to exist. Update. I’m just now reading Frans de Waal’s new book “Our Innner Ape” and he states that chimp/bonobo hybrids do exist, although they were accidentally produced by private individuals, not on purpose by scientists. Given de Waal’s credentals as one of the world’s leading biologists studying chimps and bonobos, I think we can assume he is correct. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give much detail about the behavioral differences these hybrids exhibit. OTOH, the book is quite good and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject of human/ape behavior. He does, for instance, discuss in detail the striking difference in social structure between chimps and bonobos, and how that structure does depend (to a significant degree) on the physical environment, especially the availability of food. Chimp social structures become more similar to bonobo social structures as the availability of food increases. Fascinating stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/32 "2005-10-22T18:13:21Z")
- - - There is an old African taboo about engaging in sex with apes, and males of other species will attempt to engage human females. This was said to be the reason that Richard Leakey only sent women to study apes–because it was known that while the female apes are rather accepting of outsiders the males are not, but males will accept a new female into the group. - The taboo says these offspring are bad luck and generally dangerous if they are allowed to live, and the usual response was to kill anyone caught having sex with apes, or to kill any mothers that gave birth to hirsuite children (as well the children). - Hirsutism in humans has nothing much to do with apes or chimps of course. There is no good evidence that sex between humans and apes/chimps has ever produced viable offspring–but even so, scientists will not definitely state that such offspring is _impossible_, only that it is extremely, extremely unlikely. ~ ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/33 "2005-10-22T19:14:00Z")
It’s the height of Googly irony that the Ad I just saw at the bottom of this thread offers to rent ‘Affection trained chimpanzees for TV, movies and live events’. I don’t think they read the thread very closely. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/34 "2005-10-22T19:25:23Z")
It’s the “Horse Lovers” ad that has me a bit oogied… As for those ligers: > [@](#): > > In tigers, the fathers contribute the genes that limit growth. In lions, the mothers contribute the genes that limit growth. When you take a female tiger, and a male lion, the offspring (liger) have no genes to regulate how big they get. They just keep growing their whole lives. […] On their hind legs, ligers stand approximately 12 feet tall. At most, ligers may weigh up to 1,000 pounds. :eek: I would run if I saw one of those coming, you bet. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/35 "2005-10-22T19:30:16Z")
But she was the ‘gorilla my dreams’! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/36 "2005-10-22T20:20:38Z")
I’d sure like to be covered in that soft, soft manchilla fur. Bring it on! ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/37 "2005-10-22T20:27:23Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - There is an old African taboo about engaging in sex with apes, and males of other species will attempt to engage human females. This was said to be the reason that Richard Leakey only sent women to study apes–because it was known that while the female apes are rather accepting of outsiders the males are not, but males will accept a new female into the group. > > - The taboo says these offspring are bad luck and generally dangerous if they are allowed to live, and the usual response was to kill anyone caught having sex with apes, or to kill any mothers that gave birth to hirsuite children (as well the children). > - Hirsutism in humans has nothing much to do with apes or chimps of course. There is no good evidence that sex between humans and apes/chimps has ever produced viable offspring–but even so, scientists will not definitely state that such offspring is _impossible_, only that it is extremely, extremely unlikely. > ~ taboo,smaboo…I want a monkeyboy! ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/38 "2005-10-23T00:26:16Z")
Maybe that’s where the whole ‘hot monkey sex’ thing came from. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172/39 "2005-10-23T19:34:34Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > Did anyone else read the title and was aghast at the prospect of a human/chinchilla cross, or was it just me? No, I was really excited. And then very disappointed when I clicked on the thread and realised it mean gor-illa. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chumans-and-humillas/318172.md?page=1)