# Great ape in South America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 1999, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989 "1999-11-27T20:37:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 1999, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/1 "1999-11-27T20:37:00Z")
Had on Arthur Clarke’s show, “Into the Unknown,” but wasn’t paying strict attention. The show was about weird animals like Tasmanian tigers and some kind of striped cheetah - and then they had a story of four survivors of a European expedition into the SA jungle (up a river, but not the Amazon). One of the four, a Swiss geologist, carried a photo of a large but very odd looking ape, propped up on a packing crate. A French scientist declared it was a genuine discovery, an English one declared it to be a fake. The question is - what was the name given to this ape? It sounded like “Loyce’s.” I’ve tried the Dicovery site, and various searches on variants of “loyce” but no luck. Any help? I’m not really a gorilla - I’m a librarian in a skin. * * * Official Poster of the Millenium ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/2 "1999-11-28T00:51:00Z")
That’s an oooooold picture, once claimed to be ‘The Missing Link’ bla bla bla. Can’t help you on the name, but it looks like a variant of a Spider Monkey. * * * -PIGEONMAN- Hero For A New Millennium! [The Legend Of PigeonMan](http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - updates every Wed & Sat. If I can be bothered. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/3 "1999-11-28T01:56:00Z")
Could this be what you’re looking for? LORIS: Also called **slender loris** , a small, slender, tailless, large-eyed, nocturnal lemur of southern India and Sri Lanka. (Not from South America, and not large, but hey, you _did_ say you weren’t paying close attention…) * * * “I’m not sure who’s watching TV these days, but they’re not getting any smarter.” ---
**Author:** ![Jorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/4 "1999-11-28T03:12:00Z")
Noriega, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/5 "1999-11-28T03:26:00Z")
I don’t think it’s a loris, but it might be the Lorax. It’s only a matter of time before someone stumbles across a pride of cats in hats. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/6 "1999-11-28T03:33:00Z")
I think you’re talking about Loys’ Ape. According to a cryptozoology site (sorry, no link handy), Loys shot the beast and took pieces of it to show everybody. However, later in the trip, they were attacked by natives, and decided that saving their own skins was more important than saving the monkey’s, so they ditched the remains. Only the photo survives, and it is a good photo. It clearly shows the ape, and they have it propped up on some kind of box to provide some scale. * * * “I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/7 "1999-11-28T04:51:00Z")
I’ve read about De Loys’ Ape before (yes, the dreaded, “I read it somewhere”), and it is pretty widely considered a hoax. Here is an article I uncovered on Google. There were many more. [http://www.parascope.com/en/cryptozoo/missingLinks08.htm](http://www.parascope.com/en/cryptozoo/missingLinks08.htm) * * * ``` Jess ``` Full of 'satiable curtiosity ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/8 "1999-11-28T05:47:00Z")
That’s it, thanks. So much for Clarke’s pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 1999, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/9 "1999-11-29T06:47:00Z")
FYI & hijacking the thread—The striped cheetah **has been captured.** The striped cheetah, more properly called the **KING CHEETAH** is a mutant strain of cheetah that is becoming increasingly common. There has been a Discovery Channel Special on the subject.Hides, hundreds of hours of film, & live examples are available for inspection. The different pattern on the King Cheetah seems to provide superior concealment during hunting. Now, if only the Bigfoot/Nessie crowd would study this example of successful cryptozoology & stop gassing/goofing off. Note–I think cheetahs are the sharpest looking of all the great cats. * * * Save The Endangered Jackalope! Send Cash Now! If You Do This, I Will Use The Cash To Save Any Jackalope That I Happen To Find! Send Cash Now! Before It’s Too Late! My Bills, I Mean **The Jackalope’s Bills** Are Due The 15th Of The Month! _This has been a message from the Illuminated Committee To Save The Jackalope. Fnord._ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 1999, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/10 "1999-11-29T06:49:00Z")
I forgot to mention–King Cheetahs are most commonly found in South Africa. They will interbreed with normal cheetahs. * * * Save The Endangered Jackalope! Send Cash Now! If You Do This, I Will Use The Cash To Save Any Jackalope That I Happen To Find! Send Cash Now! Before It’s Too Late! My Bills, I Mean **The Jackalope’s Bills** Are Due The 15th Of The Month! _This has been a message from the Illuminated Committee To Save The Jackalope. Fnord._ ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 1999, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/11 "1999-11-28T20:02:00Z")
So, Loy’s Ape was just a very large spider monkey. Despite what the article says, I’m sure I read that De Loys actually took the primate’s skull and other parts, but had to abandon them later. * * * “I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 1999, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/12 "1999-11-29T15:34:00Z")
Yes, Dice, I read the same thing “somewhere.” I just started a new job and haven’t had time to go through all my books and see if I have the article here. Anyway, even if de Loy _had_ taken the skull and spare parts and then lost them, that doesn’t really prove anything. Possibly (or, more likely probably) this evidence, if avaiable, would show that the ‘ape’ was indeed just a largeish Spider Monkey. * * * ``` Jess ``` Full of 'satiable curtiosity ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 1999, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/13 "1999-11-29T15:50:00Z")
[http://theshadowlands.net/creature.htm#ape](http://theshadowlands.net/creature.htm#ape) By the way, buried in the extremely credulous article about cryptozoology above (which includes an entry on de Loys Ape) is an interesting link to another article about a zoologist who recently found a bunch of previously undiscovered new species of animals in the Amazon jungle (4 types of monkey, a jaguar and a porkypine). The fascinating thing is that it never occurs to the people who put the site together that this undercuts their premise that the “only” explanation for de Loys Ape is that it _is_ an ape, not just a new type of Spider Monkey. Also, I seem to remember an accusation that de Loy cut the tail off of his speciman to make it appear more ape-like. I still can’t find my cite for this, though. I will try to find it tonight after work. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 1999, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-ape-in-south-america/4989/14 "1999-11-29T16:58:00Z")
## De Loyes didn’t have to cut the tail off his specimen. The photo is clearly of a spider monkey propped up on a crate, and does not show the back of the creature at all. My copy of _On the Track of Unknown Animals_ by Heuvelmans is at home, but I remember being unimpressed by any of his “South American Ape” sightings. Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University “You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason.”