# Have you ever heard of "The Great Ape (or Golill\_ War in Engand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074 "2018-02-18T19:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074/1 "2018-02-18T19:59:40Z")
I seem to remember reading, nearly sixty years ago, of “The Great Ape War” In London, England. The claimed event: The man in charge of primates at a British zoo went on vacation, leaving his newly-hired assistant in charge. The assistant decided it would be nifty to mix the male and female gorillas–till then separated–in the same cage. What ensued was “The Great Ape War”. After three days all of the females and all but six of the males were dead. Does anyone have any information on this? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074/2 "2018-02-18T23:22:01Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > I seem to remember reading, nearly sixty years ago, of “The Great Ape War” In London, England. > The claimed event: The man in charge of primates at a British zoo went on vacation, leaving his newly-hired assistant in charge. The assistant decided it would be nifty to mix the male and female gorillas–till then separated–in the same cage. What ensued was “The Great Ape War”. After three days all of the females and all but six of the males were dead. > Does anyone have any information on this? Sounds like urban legend. Every zoo or animal park I know of has the males & females of each species together. (In general. There are always cases where specific individuals are isolated from the others for a time. Like a pregnant lioness is given a private den to give birth.) So I can’t imagine that it would be reasonable for the zookeeper to have done that. Nor to have an assistant so clueless that he didn’t know why it was done. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074/3 "2018-02-18T23:51:58Z")
> **[London Zoo’s Monkey Hill (1925-1955) Revisited](https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/london-zoos-monkey-hill-1925-1955.html)** > > I had heard of Monkey Hill. I had read that it was a less than successful exhibit at London Zoo in the 1930s. I also knew that it its popul... ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074/4 "2018-02-19T00:01:33Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Sounds like urban legend. > Every zoo or animal park I know of has the males & females of each species together. (In general. There are always cases where specific individuals are isolated from the others for a time. Like a pregnant lioness is given a private den to give birth.) > > So I can’t imagine that it would be reasonable for the zookeeper to have done that. Nor to have an assistant so clueless that he didn’t know why it was done. Perhaps, but the males may be separated from each other, I would’ve expected the OPs experiment to have resulted in more dead males than females. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-great-ape-or-golill_-war-in-engand/809074/5 "2018-02-19T00:04:27Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > [Zoology Jottings: London Zoo’s Monkey Hill (1925-1955) Revisited](https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/london-zoos-monkey-hill-1925-1955.html) Thank you **cornflakes**. Proverbially enough reality is IMO more fascinating than the Urban Legend, especially in the refusal to learn and the repetition of mistakes through multiple decades.