Written by: Bai Xiaobai, Editor: Xu Dewen
If you've seen movies like Rise of the Apes, you're probably filled with mixed emotions about chimpanzees, gorillas, and other humanoids; of course, that's probably the kind of emotion they have when they confront us. Millions of years ago we were cousins, but we went out of the forest and into the city to enjoy the good life; they came to the city with a tragic mission — to work in our zoo or laboratory.
In our minds, this tragic situation of different fates may give our ape cousins more anger and dissatisfaction, so that when they meet us, they will grin their teeth and be fierce, extremely aggressive. Of course, this is also the case, for example, male gorillas will rush over and viciously drive humans out of their territory when they encounter humans.
However, in the Billy Forest in the northern part of the Congo, a mysterious ape has emerged. If you approach them, they will take the initiative to approach you, stare straight at you, seem to recognize their human cousins and cousins, and then quietly walk away after a burst of rich inner activity of miscellaneous tastes - you may not think so, but in the local legend, they are violent lion killers, can tear leopards, hunt male lions, are you already scared back chills?
This animal is the mysterious bili ape, also known as the bondo mystery ape. In 1996, Swiss photographer Carl Aman visited the northern part of congo in search of a gorilla, but unexpectedly harvested a strange skull, driven by curiosity, he stationed here and bought a photograph from a poacher, thus documenting the mysterious animal, Billy Ape.
Billy ape is a large primate living in the Billy Forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its body structure is similar to that of chimpanzees, although classified as a subspecies of chimpanzees, but its body size is much larger than chimpanzees. Its hair is gray-white, the skull is 22 cm long, the height is generally about 1.5 meters, and with a pair of large feet of 28-34 cm, it is like a group of "enlarged chimpanzees". Of course, in addition to the enlarged version of the body shape, along with the excreted poop is also an enlarged version, the billy ape emits three times as much feces as chimpanzees, often making the flies overjoyed.
Billy's snout is wider, and the brow bone protrudes outward through the forehead, making people feel that they always have a fierce and evil stinky face. Among the local tribes, billy apes are even more mysterious, and are said to be gods, with a heroic nickname - "lion killer". In the eyes of the indigenous people, the billy ape was not too cruelly persecuted by other animals in nature, but instead "turned into serfs and sang", leopards and lions were hunted by the billy ape at will, which seems to be confirmed by the strong enemy, but they built their nests on the ground, and it is hard to believe that they can sleep peacefully in the land full of leopards, lions, golden cats, buffaloes and elephants.
Unlike the authentic chimpanzees, Billy Ape, who is extremely vicious towards the king of all beasts, has the opposite attitude towards humans. Dr. Shirley Williams, a primate, was the first scientist to see a billy ape, and she said that when they saw billy ape, these guys were in the tree about 10 meters away, and 4 of them pounced on them, and they looked very large, they were going to hurt the killer, but when they saw her face, they stopped, stared for a while, and then disappeared. Aman, who often returns to the Billy Forest, recalls that they would face humans face to face, stare straight at people, as if they could recognize us as cousins, and finally walk away quietly.
Cliff Hicks of the University of Amsterdam filmed a rare video in 2014 of a female Billy ape teaching children to learn to use tools and male chimpanzees patrolling en masse to defend their territory. He said that in general, away from the road village, in the deep forest of the ape is more curious about humans, will take the initiative to approach humans, and have the interest to watch, will not show aggression and threat, while within 20 kilometers of the road, the ape, see the shadow of the human and flee, without exception, especially the male. This suggests that the less contact with humans there is, the more naïve Billy Ape seems.
Billy Forest, in the northern part of Congo, is off the beaten track, but unfortunately, since 2007, illegal poachers have begun to sneak into the area, and the local chimpanzees, elephants and other large animals are in crisis. Commercial poaching has become increasingly rampant, large numbers of Billy apes have been killed or captured for sale, countless giraffe skins, leopard skins, elephant meat and ivory have been traded on the black market, the tranquility of billy forest has been broken, and the future of billy apes is worrying.
In the first episode of the documentary "Dynasty", David, the young chimpanzee ruler who ascended to the top, was killed by time, old and weak, and finally completely abandoned by the family, cruel and sad, so that the audience experienced the cruelty of the power game in the animal kingdom. The story of Billy Ape is the competition between animals and humans for the right to survive, the game between animals and humans, the game between humans and nature, who will be the master of tomorrow? The ultimate winner will be us?
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