Man vs. Beast

[xyzzy]

Yeah it was a silly show but I happened to catch the tug of war between the orangutan and the Sumo wrestler. It probably would have been more interesting with a power lifter, but it wasnt even a contest! The orangutan with those thin arms looked bored and the Sumo was genuinely out of breath and overwhelmed after he lost.

Which reminded me of a hairless albino chimp we have at our local zoo. He has amazing muscle definition, I mean he looks like just some old wrinkled body builder.

Muscles are muscles, right? I mean, its not that the tissue is that much different and the muscle structure is practically the same. It's crazy to compare chimps to humans as far as strength, but that's a lot of upper body strength from just climbing trees.

 

[Levex]

nature compensated for the lack of brains and logic in animals by giving them more strength than humans.
there are exceptions of course...look at chickens...no brains,no strength,just taste good

 

[Ricky]

Honestly, they all looked legit, but I find it hard to believe the orangutan won.

I think that one was fixed. I really can't believe the orangutan won, there is no way!

I absolutely loved the show though. I am a fan of monkeys anyways. I wish that damn chimp would have run with more of a sense of purpose on the obstacle course, he was just taking his sweet old time.

The zebra kicked ass on the race versus the sprinter. He made it look easy!

 

[Jin]

there is a huge difference between strength and power... almost all animals have a huge power-to-weight ratio... humans have this in their youth, but fades greatly as we get into our teens and adult-hood.

there was an orangutang in the 50's that boxed.....whoever could beat him was awarded alot of money ( I forget how much)

he fought like 200 bouts and almost all never made it past the second round. never lost.

look at gymnasts and ballet dancers (considered by many authorties to be the strongest athleats in the world) they don't look that big but they can move their body like its weighs nothing. because they have a vey high power-to-weight ratio.

and the muscle structure is the same but very different as well... their (animals) tendons are longer and the muscle shorter (equals more power) compared to humans....

Best,

Jin

 

[Ricky]

So you believe the orangutan was stronger?

For some reason, that one seemed so difficult to believe.

 

[Alpha male Female Catcher]

Apes are much stronger than humans

Originally posted by Ricky
Honestly, they all looked legit, but I find it hard to believe the orangutan won.

I think that one was fixed. I really can't believe the orangutan won, there is no way!

Believe it it’s true. I have seen a number of documentaries where it is claimed that your average 60kg chimp is 10 times stronger than your average man.

My 1992 copy of Guinness Book of Records under the heading ‘strongest primate’ lists a right handed pull of 847lb for a 165lb chimp named ‘Boma’ in 1920 at the Bronx zoo and a 1260lb right handed pull from a 100lb female chimp named ‘Suzette’ in a rage.
I did a quick search of the internet and found the following info backing this up below

from http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_001b.html
It's a lot easier to get a chimp in roller skates than it is to get him to pump iron--hence, most of the data on chimp strength is anecdotal and decidedly unscientific. In tests at the Bronx Zoo in 1924, a dynamometer--a scale that measures the mechanical force of a pull on a spring--was erected in the monkey house. A 165-pound male chimpanzee named "Boma" registered a pull of 847 pounds, using only his right hand (although he did have his feet braced against the wall, being somewhat hip, in his simian way, to the principles of leverage). A 165-pound man, by comparison, could manage a one-handed pull of about 210 pounds. Even more frightening, a female chimp, weighing a mere 135 pounds and going by the name of Suzette, checked in with a one-handed pull of 1,260 pounds. (She was in a fit of passion at the time; one shudders to think what her boyfriend must have looked like next morning.) In dead lifts, chimps have been known to manage weights of 600 pounds without even breaking into a sweat. A male gorilla could probably heft an 1,800-pound weight and not think twice about it.”

from http://www.adopt-a-chimp.com/faqs.
How strong are chimps?

Full-grown chimpanzees are five to eight times stronger than adult male humans. Chimpanzees are particularly strong in their upper bodies, and can pull up to 1,000 lbs. with one arm. “

This makes sense after all how many people have a power to weight ratio good enough to do a one handed chin up? Not many but chimps exhibit this level of strength and more in their daily routine all the time.

I also read somewhere that the strength difference is mainly due to the tendons of the chimp attaching to the bone further out from the joint than in the case of us humans thus giving them a leverage advantage which translates in to a strength advantage. By having our tendons join closer to the joint we gain speed but at the expense of strength.

At the risk of being misconstrued as racist I would also speculate that the tendon leverage theory explains why although body building is dominated by no race (indicating no race has better total over all muscle amount – though maybe less fat), boxing and 100m running is dominated by one race (slight speed advantage) but not weight lifting (slight strength disadvantage?).

 

[am6ERIC9a]

hey we learned this in phsyics
monkey's tendons that connect the muscles are connected further apart from their limbs than humans which results in that flap you see on their joints
and since it is placed further apart, i can create more torque with less force.
think of pushing a door...it is easy to push it if you are further out than pushing it near the hinge
they had a full explaination in the book but i'm too lazy to get it
but that tissue placement is what makes them so strong
they are around 3x as strong as humans

 

[OddTech]

Hey, I didn't see the show. So did the animal kingdom won on every match? And was there any "mismatch" in the show?