Ape Rape
Elestria
From Demonic Males, by Richard Wrangham & Dale Peterson, Houghton Mifflin
1996
In June of 1968 British researcher John MacKinnon established a camp on
the Segama River in northeastern Borneo and began the first successful
study of orangutans. Packing only essential gear, MacKinnon slept at night
on the forest floor, beneath nests where his subjects were sleeping, and
followed them until he lost them or ran out of food, up to ten days at a
stretch. "Heat, high humidity, rainstorms, floods and gales added to the
discomfort and hazard of fieldwork," he recalled in 1974. "Leeches, wasps,
mosquitoes, horseflies and ticks added further problems and bears, wild
pigs, snakes, crocodiles, elephants, [and] banteng . . . also produced
anxious moments." Over a total period of fifteen and a half months,
however, MacKinnon located at least 200 orangutans and observed them for
more than 1,200 hours.
During this pioneering research, MacKinnon witnessed eight matings, of
which seven were, in his belief, instances of "unwilling females being
raped by aggressive males." MacKinnon described them in the following way:
"The females showed fear and tried to escape from the males, but were
pursued, caught and sometimes struck and bitten. Sometimes the females
screamed; their dependent young always did so, biting, pulling hair and
hitting at the males during mating. The male usually grasped the female by
her thighs or round the waist with his prehensile feet, but by pulling
herself about by her arms a female can keep moving and the male is forced
to follow. One mating started at the top of a tree and ended on the
ground. Such rape sessions lasted about ten minutes."
MacKinnon's descriptions fit earlier accounts of forced copulations in
captivity, and they were soon supported by every orangutan observer who
saw sex in the wild. From late 1971 to late 1975, for instance, Birute
Galdikas, assisted by her husband and an additional researcher, watched a
total of 58 orangutans for nearly 7,000 hours of direct observation in
Indonesia's Tanjung Puting Reserve of southern Borneo; during that time
they witnessed 52 matings or attempts. About a third involved an element
of rape. "A female's struggles ranged in intensity and duration all the
way from brief tussles with squealing and some pushing and slapping at the
male's hands to protracted, violent fights in which the female struggled
throughout the length of the copulation, emitted loud rape grunts, and bit
the male whenever she could."
At the Kutai Game Reserve in southeastern Borneo, John Mitani watched
orangutans during sixteen months, from July 1981 to October 1982, and
witnessed 179 matings, of which 88 percent were "forced." These forced
copulations, according to Mitani, "involved protracted struggles between
females and males," during which "females whimper, cry, squeal and grunt,"
while males would "grab, bite or slap females before they could copulate.
While thrusting, males continued to restrain struggling females by
grasping their arms, legs and bodies." And in Ketambe, Herman Rijksen saw
58 copulations, of which 27 were judged to be rapes.
Birute Galdikas's autobiographical account of two decades among the
orangutans of Borneo, Reflections of Eden, appeared in 1995. Although her
earlier scientific writings described rape among orangutans in very
forthright terms, in addressing a popular audience Galdikas chose to
temper her language and refine her meaning. Thus, in Reflections, Galdikas
relates several instances where young males force themselves sexually upon
unwilling females, but these acts she now describes as rape only after
extended and careful qualification. "In effect," Galdikas declares after
relating one assault, the male "had committed date rape." She continues:
"I do not want in any way to trivialize date rape among human beings. I
know from friends and acquaintances how traumatic, and how alarmingly
common, it is. But sex does not have the same meaning for orangutans that
it does for humans. We view sex through cultural and moral lenses."
The orangutans in Galdikas's book peer out from high, hidden places in the
rainforest, observing their earthbound scientific observers as strange
fellow apes: simultaneously similar and different enough to inspire both
fascination and fear. Wild orangutans nearly always retained and respected
an invisible barrier between themselves and humans-but a powerful young
male orangutan named Gundul, born in the wild, taken captive, now living
free at the research camp as part of an ex-captive release project, had
been around people long enough to have lost his fear of them.
One day Gundul attacked and raped an Indonesian cook at the camp. Galdikas
describes this event in detail. "I had never seen Gundul threaten or
assault a woman, although he frequently charged male assistants. The cook
was screaming hysterically. I thought, 'He's trying to kill her."'
Galdikas, after calling for help, fought the ape with every ounce of her
strength, beat him with her fists, attempted to ram a fist down his
throat, but with no effect. "I began to realize that Gundul did not intend
to harm the cook, but had something else in mind. The cook stopped
struggling. 'It's all right,' she murmured. She lay back in my arms, with
Gundul on top of her. Gundul was very calm and deliberate. He raped the
cook. "
Fortunately the victim was neither seriously injured nor stigmatized. Her
friends remained tolerant and supportive. Her husband reasoned that since
the rapist was not human, the rape should not provoke shame or rage. "Why
should my wife or I be concerned? It wasn't a man."
Defining rape as a copulation where the victim resists to the best of her
(or his) ability, or where a likely result of such resistance would be
death or bodily harm {to the victim, or to those whom she or he commonly
protects!, in 1989 researcher Craig Palmer surveyed the literature for
cases of rape among mammals. He found rape to be routine among only two
species of nonhuman mammals: orangutans and elephant seals. In addition,
he uncovered reports of occasional rape from studies of three other
species. Jane Goodall has described rape among Gombe chimpanzees, and
attempts at rape have been noted among captive gorillas and wild howler
monkeys. Palmer, incidentally, had no particular bias in favor of finding
or not finding rape in particular species, and he did not even draw
attention to its concentration among apes. The skewed distribution of
nonhuman mammalian rape - four of the five known cases for mammals
occurring among primates, three of the five in apes - suggests that apes
are an unusually violent species, while it also shows that a few other
nonhuman mammals do rape.
The Erisian Elestria
"Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding."
- Tao Te Ching
Kimbersh
Here in Florida you sometimes hear accounts from divers of sexually
aggressive dolphins ... I've never known if these accounts are based on
fact or urban (or undersea) folklore.
When Flipper goes bad... <G>
Elestria
From: kimb...@aol.com (Kimbersh)
wrote: Here in Florida you sometimes hear accounts from divers of sexually
aggressive dolphins ... I've never known if these accounts are based on
fact or urban (or undersea) folklore.
When Flipper goes bad... <G>
***
In the prologue to DOUBLE WHAMMY, a novel, author Carl Hiassen cites
allegedly reputable sources regarding the reality of the dolphin rape he
fictionalizes. Sorry I don't have the book at hand to pass along the cite.
Rhias K. Hall
As far as Dolphin rape is concerned, I have seen videotape of a sexually
agressive dolphin asaulting a diver. Must've been on that "realTV" show
or something.
-Badger
Trying not to think about this too much...
Nick Buckle
eles...@aol.com (Elestria) wrote:
>From: kimb...@aol.com (Kimbersh)
>wrote: Here in Florida you sometimes hear accounts from divers of sexually
>aggressive dolphins ... I've never known if these accounts are based on
>fact or urban (or undersea) folklore.
>
>When Flipper goes bad... <G>
>
>***
>
>In the prologue to DOUBLE WHAMMY, a novel, author Carl Hiassen cites
>allegedly reputable sources regarding the reality of the dolphin rape he
>fictionalizes. Sorry I don't have the book at hand to pass along the cite.
>
I'm really sorry because I can't remember all the details, but within
the last 2 - 3 years there has been a case here in England of a man
accused of indecently assaulting a dolphin. It happened in the sea
with a wild dolphin off the east coast. It was alleged that the man
had fondled the dolphin's penis.
As far as I can remember the man was acquitted.
I'm sorry about the lack of detail but it wasn't high on my list of
notable true crimes :-)
--
Nick Buckle
"I don't believe virginity
is as common as it used to be"
Nick Buckle
Nick Buckle
Edward Eck
jam...@terranet.ab.ca (alan munro) wrote:
>On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 08:19:23 GMT, nbu...@morrisst.u-net.com
>(Nick Buckle) wrote:
>>I'm really sorry because I can't remember all the details, but within
>>the last 2 - 3 years there has been a case here in England of a man
>>accused of indecently assaulting a dolphin. [...]
>What I'm curious about is what crime could he possibly be
>charged with? [...]
> J. Alan Munro
> jam...@terranet.ab.ca
> Counsel for the Damned Time wounds all heels.
> Shilling taker and He who laughs, lasts.
> Convict baker.
Why, "crossing state lines for immoral porposes," of course!
E.
alan munro
>Why, "crossing state lines for immoral porposes," of course!
Cute, if it were not for the fact that the U.K. has a
uniform criminal jurisdiction that doesn't require such
cumbersome legal fictions to pursue criminals as is
necessary in the USA.
doug haire
alan munro (jam...@terranet.ab.ca) wrote:
: On Thu, 19 Dec 1996 03:04:26 GMT, ed...@kersur.net (Edward
: Eck) wrote:
:
:
: >Why, "crossing state lines for immoral porposes," of course!
:
:
: Cute, if it were not for the fact that the U.K. has a
: uniform criminal jurisdiction that doesn't require such
: cumbersome legal fictions to pursue criminals as is
: necessary in the USA.
Oh, Alan, I cannot believe you either missed the pun or were unamused by
it... Perhaps if he had left the "i" in Porpoise, it would have been more
obvious.
George Byrd
In <alt.true-crime>, 20 Dec 1996 09:53:04 GMT,
On "Re: Animal husbandry redux",
<dha...@gate.net (doug haire)> wrote:
Um, to clear things up a bit, the reference seems to be to America's
Mann Act, codified as <mumble> U.S.Code <mumble>, which refers to
transporting minor females across state lines for immoral purposes.
There is an old shaggy dog story, which I'll not repeat, the punch
line of which is "he was arrested for transporting young gulls across
a staid lion for immoral porpoises."
George "I hate it when that happens." ;^)
--
Opinions above are NOT those of APAN, Inc.
Opinions above are NOT legal advice.
alan munro
On 20 Dec 1996 09:53:04 GMT, dha...@gate.net (doug haire)
wrote:
>Oh, Alan, I cannot believe you either missed the pun or were unamused by
>it... Perhaps if he had left the "i" in Porpoise, it would have been more
>obvious.
I missed it, I missed it, I can't believe I missed it!
I've been in the sewer of human degradation so long I've
lost my sense of humour and become a posturing pontificating
pedant!
Thank goodness I'm on holdays for a while. Maybe some
eggnog, turkey and just plain folks will help me find my way
back.