June 29, 2012
There is a reason that humans need to fear encounters with apes, whether they be gorillas, chimps, or Bigfoot! Just “by coincidence,” today at 7 PM Eastern, MonsterQuest is rebroadcasting their episode, “Killer Chimps in America.”
An American researcher mauled by chimpanzees in South Africa has been identified as an anthropology graduate student studying at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Andrew Oberle (pictured) was in critical condition Friday (June 29, 2012) after undergoing surgery near Johannesburg. Officials say the 26-year-old was giving a lecture Thursday at the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden when two chimpanzees grabbed his feet and pulled him under a fence.
Oberle relaxing at the chimp center, before the attack.
Oberle is a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The school said in a statement Friday that “our hearts go out to Andrew and his family.”
Officials in South Africa say Oberle had “multiple and severe bite wounds” and was dragged nearly a half-mile by the chimpanzees. Oberle suffered serious wounds, including bites, and reportedly lost an ear, and several fingers and toes in the attack. Witnesses said two male chimpanzees, called Mickey and Amadeus, were the attackers.
One of the chimps at the center (not an attacker).
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Animal Escapees, CryptoZoo News, Weird Animal News