The Great Apes

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(10-14-2018, 02:00 AM)brotherbear Wrote: Have you ever seen gorilla do it? 
 
YES. How many ways can I tell this? There was a kind of documentary on TV, some years back. First the man breaks ( with some difficulty ) a stick of bamboo. To the best of my memory, probably not much bigger  around than a human finger. Then the gorilla ( in his cage ) broke a big stick of bamboo about the size of a big man's arm and seemed to do so easily. Personally, I wasn't surprised. 
 
But, that tv program cannot be found and no one has ever really attempted to test their strength. So its pointless to go around in circles. But consider this, if they're not very strong, why then are these big normally slow-moving herbivores not the leopard's favorite prey in the Congo? A bull gorilla would not be difficult to catch. 

It is a pity, that that documentary can´t be found. I read too fast your last message and missed that point, that you have seen it. I have seen only gorillas to brake bamboos with using body weight to help it. What comes to gorillas in Congo, I have read from several sources, that leopards do hunt and eat them and able to kill also silverbacks. But that then again is about something else than brute strength, because gorilla anatomy isn´t best possible when it gets clawed, easy to get big cuts and for instance when artery in groin area is cut open, gorilla as any animal die fast. But nowadays there are so few of those animals and conservation programs, so there can be many reasons why not so often reports about killed gorillas. On the other hand in jungle there can be many cases which we will never know.

Anyway predation by leopards, what comes to gorillas has happened. Of course most cases have been at night time and gorillas taken by surprise, there are multiple sources about that. But some cases show, that leopard is able to direct confrontation too, even though then fight is fierce. Luckily there are not many cases, I happen to like both animals a lot and it is pity to see articles, where are told about those situations. But... wild animals aren´t always asking what we like or not :) Reply