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What if a species of King Kong-like apes existed? Would they be hunted to extinction, go extinct in the wild because too many were shipped to zoos, or would they be protected by law?

Sky
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    Not exactly related, but possibly interesting: http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/46664/anatomically-correct-king-kong?rq=1 – Ranger Sep 13 '16 at 17:55
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    This question's not exactly answerable without saying how they exist. Given the answer to the question Nex linked above, looks like they can't without massively changing how Earth biology works. Depending on how you're getting around the impossibility will drastically change how people react to it. – Azuaron Sep 13 '16 at 18:21
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    Isn't the answer to this simply, "All of the above"? I can't remember the last time we managed to get every human on the planet to agree on a single course of action. – Frostfyre Sep 13 '16 at 19:03
  • Then we'de be screwed. End of story. – Jax Sep 14 '16 at 13:25
  • He would be reported as found dead at the base of the Empire State Building. The coroner's report might read something like, "found riddled with bullets and a sizable handful of blonde hair in his closed fist". – Starrdaark Jul 01 '17 at 10:18

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If a real King Kong existed, it would probably be slow-moving, and with a slow metabolism due to its size and need to feed itself. It certainly wouldn't have too many predator problems at that size, and it would probably be strictly vegetarian. The closest analogue in recent times would be a Megatheriid Ground Sloth. They were the size of elephants, up to 20ft head to tail, with weight estimates around 4 tonnes.

They were hunted to extinction by people with sticks.

Even if King Kong is bigger, and maybe even if he is smarter, he is going to need to practice a lot of stealthy hiding out in the remotest jungles to escape the extinctifying attentions of Victorian adventurers and their black powder smooth-bores. I don't see the Kongs life history turning out any different from elephants or rhinos.

Vincent
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kingledion
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Entry #4 in this article explains it pretty well.

Also, apart from gravity, he would have the same problem as huge dinosaurs would in today's atmosphere: lack of oxygen.

But let's say they evolved in a way that they can actually survive in the modern world. They would've most likely been hunted down by humans to the point of extinction (or near extinction, like real life great apes). They would probably be too big to be shipped to zoos (zoos would need to spend way too much money in keeping the thing. They require a very large space, a lot of food, and also some pretty advanced enclosures to keep guests safe. A little moat around the monkey won't be enough).

Through Island Gigantism we can infer that these gorillas would probably be found in very secluded parts of the world, which means that instead of sending them to zoos, humans might try to just keep those islands protected and away from other humans. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be some shady people who would offer to take rich tourists to those islands and some adventurous poachers would definitely try to hunt them down too.

kirgod
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I would imagine all of the above, just like any other very large animal (elephants, rhinos). Unless their population was incredibly high, but that seems unsustainable - again based on other, real large animal populations.

Of course, if such creatures existed, it's plausible that it would've prevented or drastically changed human evolution. Perhaps we would not be the modern end-game for sentience and intelligence. Maybe we would've stalled at the Neanderthal stage and these King Kong-like creatures would be the top of the food chain today.

Jesse Williams
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Most mega fauna that have shared this planet with humans have suffered extinction, often at the hands of humans, due to their ease of being hunted. Generally, the bigger they are, the slower they are and this makes for an easy meal for early humans or other predators.

Existing mega fauna such as elephants, hippos and rhinos likely shook off extinction (barely) at the hands of humans using spears or other predators because of their herding, their general unpleasantness and relative quickness.

So a mega sized ape like creature would have to exist in groups, be highly unpleasant to other creatures and move relatively quickly to stave off extinction. It is unlikely that this creature would ever get to the size of King Kong but elephant sized is plausible.

Unfortunately, King Kong is usually depicted as being solitary creature with soft heart for at least one human being for whom he basically gets killed for. He is quick but not quick enough. He doesn't have the greatest survival characteristics.

Stephen Clement
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