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Uganda's Machete-Wielding Chimps

AlchoPwn

AlchoPwn

Public Service is my Motto.
Joined
Nov 2, 2017
Messages
2,527
Does the right to bear arms include the right to arm bears? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. That and the nightmare scenario initiated by the regime of Idi Amin where he trained chimps to use machetes including throwing them with considerable accuracy in order to protect certain of his compounds. Apparently, after the fall of the Amin regime after its defeat by Tanzania, the chimps found their way into the wild and now new generations of chimps have been passing on the skills creating a "Samurai class" of chimpanzee (for want of a better term). Perhaps Planet of the Apes isn't so far-fetched? Please, no jokes about guerilla warfare though.


Not to be confused with this hoax video:
 
Dr_Baltar said:
Other than the first video being a hoax too.
Click to expand...

Actually, no it isn't. This has been fact checked. Idi Amin definitely had chimps trained in the use of machetes. There are even receipts on record from the period that confirm the use of expenses to cover it. Very Dr. Evil no?
 
AlchoPwn said:
Actually, no it isn't. This has been fact checked. Idi Amin definitely had chimps trained in the use of machetes. There are even receipts on record from the period that confirm the use of expenses to cover it. Very Dr. Evil no?
Click to expand...

That's as may be. The video's still a promotion piece from 20th Century Fox for Rise of the Planet of the Apes though.
 
Dr_Baltar said:
The video's still a promotion piece from 20th Century Fox for Rise of the Planet of the Apes though.
Click to expand...

Especially as - despite the poor quality of the video - the safety of the AK appears to be on at 0:19/20 and still on at 0:31

safe74_01.jpg


As depicted above: Up = "On", middle = "Automatic", down = "Semi-automatic"

Clever girl...

maximus otter
 
Dr_Baltar said:
Other than the first video being a hoax too.
Click to expand...

That is true. I will try and find better info online. I was hoping for a nice video, but maybe I will have to settle for a dry old academic article. Or maybe I need to fact check harder?
 
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Amin was vilified once he turned against the Euro-American West and aligned himself with (e.g.) Khaddafi. During his time in power (1970's) all sorts of lurid stories circulated about him (e.g., Caligula-class excesses; cannibalism). Machetes figured prominently in (often, if not always, factual ... ) horror stories about his regime's repressive actions. Uganda had a significant population of chimps.

All the ingredients for the machete-wielding-chimps storyline were available circa 40 years ago.

I don't know whether this was one of the tales told about him back then. However, I cannot locate any mention of it online prior to the 2011 timeframe of the viral movie advertising campaign.
 
maximus otter said:
Especially as - despite the poor quality of the video - the safety of the AK appears to be on at 0:19/20 and still on at 0:31

safe74_01.jpg


As depicted above: Up = "On", middle = "Automatic", down = "Semi-automatic"

Clever girl...

maximus otter
Click to expand...


It's good they taught the chimp about the need for the safety as well...
 
The Gombe chimp war. As a former zookeeper i worked with over 400 species including deadly creatures like crocs and big cats but the common chimpanzee is the only animal apart from man that exhibits calculated spite.
 
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