Texas Engineer Battles Escaped Alpha Chimp Bruno | Human Prey

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:03]He caught up. He was level with the front window.

[00:00:13]>> Bruno seems to have disappeared and all a sudden it was just like an explosion.

[00:00:24]Gary Brown was nearly ripped apart during a deadly chimp attack on a sightseeing trip in West Africa.

[00:00:32]>> He turned and started screaming and charged.

[00:00:37]I didn't know that they get the up to the strength of seven men.

[00:00:41][screaming] On the west coast of Africa, deep in the Sierra Leone rainforest, a large captive colony of chimpanzees lives peacefully on the 100 acre Takugama chimpanzeee sanctuary.

[00:01:04]Bruno, a 200- lb alpha male, is the colony's leader.

[00:01:11]>> An alpha male is the the term used to describe the highest ranking male chimpanzeee.

[00:01:18]The alpha male is the chimpanzeee who can win a fight with the other males.

[00:01:25]In the wild, Bruno would rule a territory at least 50 times the size of the Takugama sanctuary.

[00:01:41]Less than 40 minutes away, Texan telecommunications engineer Gary Brown is enjoying a day off at his hotel.

[00:01:53]Working here is a dream come true.

[00:01:57]>> They're hiring in Africa. Anybody want to go to Africa? And I held my hand up and said, "I'll do it." I wanted to work overseas. You guys ready?

[00:02:06]>> Yeah, let's do it.

[00:02:09]>> This weekend, Gary's decided to head up to the mountains with a colleague along with his friend Melvin Mama and their driver, Issa.

[00:02:18]I said, "My days off is going to be spent going and seeing Africa, the real Africa."

[00:02:32]Issa drives them deep in the rainforest towards the Takugama chimp sanctuary.

[00:02:43]He had told me for two weeks before about this place and and other Americans and said, "Yeah, you got to go up there and get pictures of something to see."

[00:02:54]>> It's the largest chimpuge in the world.

[00:02:57]>> Bruno is the alpha male. He's so big.

[00:03:02]>> Yes, I'm from Texas. We grow prairie dogs bigger than any age. [laughter] You'll be glad he's behind an electric fence.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah.

[00:03:25]>> At the Takugama sanctuary, Bruno keeps a close eye on his keepers.

[00:03:34]If you're in captivity, you spend a lot of time just watching. And they would see these locks being opened and uh closed many times a day and be watching very carefully to see how to get out.

[00:03:51]The chimpanzees presumably took a rock and banged it against the lock.

[00:04:00]The chimps in this part of the world know how to use rocks. Very few other animals do that. Uh chimpanzees and humans are really the tool making and tool using masters.

[00:04:14]No one knows for sure how it happened, but it's a breakout.

[00:04:21]Bruno and 30 other chimps escape their enclosure and head for the sanctuary's perimeter fence and the jungle beyond.

[00:04:33]This is really the first taste of freedom that this chimpanzeee has had.

[00:04:45]Unaware of the breakout, Gary and his friends continue to the chimp's sanctuary.

[00:04:56]>> Nice day.

[00:05:00]>> Would you just look up in the mountains and you're just mesmerized? The trees, the size of the trees, the canopy.

[00:05:09]Bruno rips through the dense jungle.

[00:05:12]This is his territory now.

[00:05:18]>> He was exploring his world, seeing what world outside the sanctuary was like and is probably afraid.

[00:05:29]Like the other chimps at the sanctuary, Bruno is brought here as an orphan. His mother was killed in the controversial bush meat trade.

[00:05:40]>> In Sarah Leon, like much of the rest of Africa, people eat chimpanzees and other primates for food.

[00:05:49]They would have seen their mother and probably other members of their community shot and killed when they were young.

[00:05:56]The chimpanzees would have that experience. They [music] would remember strangers coming. uh they would remember the gunfire. And it's probably a reasonable assumption on the chimpanzeee's part that a strange human being is a dangerous creature.

[00:06:17]Bruno hears an approaching car. The chimp immediately sizes up the situation.

[00:06:34]Hey, slow down.

[00:06:39]>> What is that?

[00:06:41]>> Something moving in the bushes.

[00:06:43]>> Hey, what is that?

[00:06:45]>> I don't know, man, but I want to get a shot of it. Come on, let's go.

[00:06:47]>> All of a sudden, out of the brush, this big black thing jumped out.

[00:06:59]First thing I thought was, "Cool." You know, I'm seeing something in the wild.

[00:07:05]>> Windows. Turn the windows up.

[00:07:07]>> Slow down, man.

[00:07:08]>> Jesus.

[00:07:09]>> Issa quickly recognizes that the huge chimp is charging. It's time to get out.

[00:07:15]>> Isa, he just threw the car in reverse and just took off backwards.

[00:07:21]>> But fleeing only makes things worse.

[00:07:34]He caught up and he was level with the front window.

[00:07:44]>> Bruno seems to have disappeared and all a sudden it was just like an explosion.

[00:07:56]A chimpanzeee that's 120 lbs is going to be mostly bone and muscle with not a lot of fat. So you have a very compact and powerful creature.

[00:08:12][screaming] >> Fighting for their lives, they somehow managed to shove the furious chimp out the window.

[00:08:20]Melvin's hand has been bitten to shreds >> right here. All this was gone. It's okay.

[00:08:28]>> If you run, you're showing that you're afraid of him. You're weak and he'll take advantage of that.

[00:08:39]>> Basically, what they're doing is they're doing damage to whatever they can get a hold of and whatever is exposed to them.

[00:08:50]Not only is Melvin losing a lot of blood, but bacteria from Bruno's saliva could be spreading through his bloodstream.

[00:08:58]>> With 2-in fangs and jaw muscles three times denser than in humans, a chimp's bite can be deadly.

[00:09:06]They need to get to a hospital fast.

[00:09:13]And we were yelling at him, "Slow down."

[00:09:15]He said, "Find a place to turn around.

[00:09:17]Turn around. We got to get out of here.

[00:09:21]Panicking, he misses a vital turnoff.

[00:09:28]They're lost.

[00:09:36]Terrified.

[00:09:38]They hit a dead end. There was a gate that stood probably 10 to 12 ft tall.

[00:09:46]with their savage attacker hot on their trail.

[00:09:51]>> I couldn't believe what was happening to us.

[00:09:54]>> They only have one option.

[00:10:03]>> We're stalled.

[00:10:07]>> The collision kills the engine. This car isn't going anywhere.

[00:10:15]We're on a hill. Let's Let's push it, guys. Let's get jump started.

[00:10:19]>> But Bruno [music] hasn't finished protecting his new territory.

[00:10:24]>> When they tried to escape, that showed the chimpanzeee that they're afraid and vulnerable and may well have triggered a chase response.

[00:10:37]>> There it is. It's coming back.

[00:10:52]In the Sierra Leone rainforest, American Gary Brown and his party have been attacked by an enormous chimp.

[00:11:05]I was blacked out, knocked out, I don't know whatever, but I lost a little bit of time.

[00:11:13]I don't remember people getting out of the car.

[00:11:18][screaming] >> Horrified, he spots Melvin on the ground. Bruno is chewing him apart. The chimp takes Melvin's foot in his mouth and bites down. Gary's adrenaline kicks in.

[00:11:38]>> I was angry. angry and just mad. Instead of running, I just started looking for a weapon.

[00:11:48]>> That's when I lost it. I had enough.

[00:11:51]And everything that came over me came through me. All of a sudden, I HAD TOTAL CLARITY.

[00:11:58]>> [screaming] >> WHEN THE CHIMPANZEEE SAW Gary standing his ground, he would have seen an opponent who was not afraid, an opponent who was angry, and an opponent who could really inflict some damage of his own.

[00:12:16]>> I had the tree turned up and was ramming and he was trying to get up and I kept ramming him on the ground. It was a very powerful and hurtful blow and uh that was absolutely the right thing to do because it convinced the chimp that if it kept up this attack it was going to get hurt.

[00:12:34]>> Suddenly Bruno bolts off.

[00:12:38]The fight was over with him because he kept his back to me and what I seen when I t we attacked each other, eye contact, facial expressions, that was totally gone on him. Now Melvin is badly wounded. His foot is completely mangled.

[00:13:04]>> He's bleeding to death.

[00:13:06]And he goes, "I'm going to die here."

[00:13:10]And I told him, I said, "No, you die here. I die here with you. I'm not leaving you." He's my friend, you know.

[00:13:19][snorts] Come on. You got to help. Come on.

[00:13:26]>> And there's no sign anywhere of their driver.

[00:13:29]>> Where's this one? He went for help.

[00:13:31][screaming] We got to go. We got to go.

[00:13:38]I could hear chimpanzees everywhere.

[00:13:42]We were totally surrounded.

[00:13:45]We took off off down the mountain. These chimps never jumped out. They stayed in the jungle. I kept looking ahead and finally we made it out. We made it to the road, the main road.

[00:14:02]More than an hour later, a passing truck picks them up and takes them to a nearby hospital.

[00:14:10]Later that day, Gary learns that Issa is mauled to death by the other runaway chimps.

[00:14:20]Doctors are unable to save Melvin's foot and three of his fingers. [music] >> During 5 minutes, don't go by. I don't see it. I'm going to have to picture it in my head every day the rest of my life.

[00:14:35]>> If you get bit by a snake or a shark or something, it's it's kind of impersonal [music] and you sort of expect it. But for a chimpanzeee, something that is clearly very similar to us in lots of ways, it it would just seem a lot more personal. I'm sure >> I have no misconceptions. I know Bruno could have taken me apart in a heartbeat.

[00:15:03]He could have if taken me I think I he was just off guard.

[00:15:11][music] Of the 31 chimpanzees that escaped the sanctuary, 27 were recaptured or returned on their own. Four, including Bruno, are still on the loose.

[00:15:39]Gary Brown's case is not unique.

[00:15:43]In May 2007, a silverback male gorilla named Bokeito escaped from a Roderdam zoo.

[00:15:53]Petronella Ivon the Horde was a regular visitor. She adored Bokito. She visited him four times a week, always smiling and making eye contact.

[00:16:05]She felt she had a special bond with the 400-lb gorilla.

[00:16:10]But on May 18th, 2007, Boito somehow escaped.

[00:16:17]He headed straight for Petronella.

[00:16:20]To a gorilla, a toothy smile is an act of aggression. And now it was payback.

[00:16:28]Boito dragged her around the zoo, breaking her arm and wrist.

[00:16:35]Visitors locked themselves in the cafeteria for safety. Bokeito broke down the door, sending tables and chairs flying.

[00:16:44]Eventually, he was shot with a tranquilizer dart.

[00:16:49]Petronella never fully healed.