An American animal lover — dubbed a “real-life Tarzan” — beat a chimpanzee in a race on the monkey bars.
It was filmed at Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina and posted on TikTok this month.
Connor McCabe’s channel Safarisiblings has 839 million followers and more than 6 million ‘likes’ on TikTok. Myrtle Beach Safari’s Instagram account, which also features McCabe, shows 511,000 followers.
Chimpanzees are considered the closest surviving relative to humans. They share 95–98 percent of the same DNA. Chimps and humans descended from a common ancestor 6–7 million years ago. But differing muscular construction means the ape species has about four times the strength of a comparatively sized human. Combined with their agility and speed, this superior muscular performance makes the chimpanzee a formidable athletic opponent.
Chimps also have a wide range of human-like emotions, such as aggression and competitiveness.
The Myrtle Beach Safari is a private reserve that houses tigers, lions and cheetahs, as well as a range of great apes, including orangutans, gibbons, gorillas and chimpanzees.
It was founded by the controversial Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle, known as Doc Antle, who was charged with animal cruelty and wildlife trafficking last year. He founded the tourist attraction in 1982.
(Edited by Fern Siegel and Judith Isacoff)
