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Robert Irwin's answer to who would win in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla settles the debate.

In 2020, a viral debate was launched on social media prompted by an intriguing question: Who would win in a fight between 100 men and 1 silverback gorilla? In the years since, the question has been reposed repeatedly, with people expressing diverse but vehement opinions about whether a gorilla is strong enough to take on 100 humans or whether the sheer number of people would be enough to overtake the powerful primate.

Silly question? Perhaps. Something people can't help weighing in on? Most definitely.


@cbsmornings

Could 100 men defeat one gorilla in a fight? #NateBurleson and the internet are on the case. #gorilla


Some might think the most prudent answer would be, "It depends. What size are the people, and what's their strategy for attacking or subduing the gorilla?" But Robert Irwin, the conservationist son of the late (and much beloved) wildlife expert Steve Irwin, actually provided a perfect answer that should end the debate once and for all.

Irwin took to TikTok to share that he's been asked the "Who would win in a fight between 100 humans and 1 gorilla?" question over and over recently, even having people stop him on the street to ask.

"I have a couple thoughts on this," he began. "First of all, I don't know. Gorillas are strong, mate. Like really strong. But it's a hundred people. I'm not sure." But, he said, as an animal conservationist, the entire idea of fighting an endangered species didn't sit right with him. Then he turned the question on its head.

"How many people does it take to save gorillas?" he asked. "That's the question we should be asking because there's not many of them left."

@robertirwin

Everyone here on TikTok keeps asking me about this viral ‘Human V Gorilla’ debate 😂 I'm finally weighing in on the discussion everyone is talking about.


He explained that yes, gorillas are super strong and powerful, but most of the time "they're pretty chill." A gorilla isn't going to just randomly pick a fight with 100 people. Unless they feel threatened and need to defend themselves, they're just going to go about doing their thing, as gorillas do. "I guess what I'm trying to say is we don't need to fight gorillas," concluded Irwin. "Maybe let's just let this one remain a mystery."

People loved Irwin's take and the way he turned the question on its head from fighting gorillas to saving them.

"This is real masculinity. Lover not a fighter."

"Him gentle parenting us like school children is sending me."

gif, gorilla, animals, conservation, naturegorilla hurrying GIFGiphy

"The main man has spoken. The debate is over."

"He really said, 'it’s never HOW is the gorilla.'"

"'How many people does it take to save gorillas' is the most Robert Irwin answer."

"Your dad would be proud ❤️ spoken like a true conservationist ❤️."

Robert Irwin has followed in his father's footsteps and become an environmental icon in his own right, with fans from all over the world following his passionate educational content about our planet's creatures. Many in the comments remarked that they didn't know that gorillas were endangered, but it's true. All species of gorilla are considered Endangered or Critically Endangered, according to Endangered Species International.

There are two main species of gorilla, the eastern and western gorilla, and the World Wildlife Fund reports that both species have been decreasing in number for decades. However, the mountain gorilla subspecies is the sole exception, with numbers on the rise thanks to concerted conservation efforts. Mountain gorillas were officially downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered in November 2018, a genuine conservation success story.

However, there are still only around 1,000 mountain gorillas in the world today, so that turnaround in numbers is a fragile success. And other species still need our help to save them from further demise.

gorillas, endangered species, gorilla vs 100 humansGorillas are generally pretty chill.Photo credit: Canva

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund has been working on saving gorillas for over 55 years, focusing on a holistic approach that includes gorilla protection and ecosystem preservation, scientific research, training the next generation of conservationists, and helping local communities near gorilla populations. You can learn more here.

Thank you, Robert Irwin, for the gentle and timely reminder of what really matters in the gorilla vs. humans debate.

Canva Photos

Solar-powered beacons in the Saudi Arabian desert guide lost travelers to water.

Chief among my worries as a kid was what I considered the high probability that at some point in my life I would be trapped in quicksand. It felt extremely important that I remember all the tricks and techniques for getting out — just in case! A close second would have to be getting lost in the desert and dying of dehydration. You absolutely had to watch out for those deadly mirages, where the light on the horizon bends in such a way that you're certain you can see water up ahead.

At least one of those fears was fairly well-founded. All jokes aside, the desert is an incredibly dangerous place. It turns out that thousands of people get lost and go missing in deserts across the world every year. The Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world, claimed a staggering 8,000 lives alone in 2023. These aren't overly flippant explorers, for the most part. Many migrants fleeing conflict zones across the desert become lost and suffer a tragic fate while trying to navigate the 3.6 million square mile area. There are many things that make the desert deadly, but dehydration with no access to water is at the top.

A team in Saudi Arabia has been testing a new technology that could drastically reduce dehydration-related deaths in the country's Al-Nafud Desert, and it looks like something straight out of a video game.

Though the Al-Nafud desert is quite a bit smaller than the Sahara standing at about 25,000 square miles, it can still be daunting to cross. Most years, hundreds of people go missing with several dozen of them perishing in the process.

An explorer named Mohammad Fohaid Al-Sohaiman had a brilliant idea to help lost travelers find water. Having been rescued in the desert himself, even as an experienced survivalist and outdoorsman, he knew there had to be a better way.

“Many people lost their lives in the desert near water resources because they did not know that water resources were close to them,” he told Arab News.

The idea: Beacons made of laser light, shot directly into the sky near water sources such as water wells. These powerful lights could be seen from miles away and would be powered by solar panels, ensuring they never go dark.

The plan is to eventually install 100 of the beacons throughout the Saudi Arabian desert.

The program to install the life-saving beacons began in 2021. It's still getting attention and inspiring awe all over the world.

A recent viral Reddit thread highlighted the innovative laser lights, and users were impressed:

"Absolutely brilliant! The rest of the world should immediately begin to implement this system in their desert areas as well as open oceans where water, food and communication devices could be stored for boaters in distress."

"This is such an amazing idea."

Others joked to the beams look like "save points" or "checkpoints" in a video game. They're not wrong!

Some have criticized the beacons, however, claiming that the light pollution may harm the desert's natural environment and residents like nocturnal animals and insects.



The desert holds vast potential for solar power due to its massive open spaces and plentiful sunlight. In fact, solar farms are common in deserts all over the world.

However, there are a couple of limitations that stop us from covering all the world's deserts in solar panels and completely converting to solar energy.

First, people underestimate how destructive and harsh the desert environment really is. Sand is incredibly corrosive, especially when whipped around in high-powered sandstorms. Maintaining solar equipment in the desert is incredibly challenging and costly.

Second, we think of deserts as open wasteland, but that's a misnomer. They're actually incredibly biodiverse natural habitats, home to many different forms of plant, animal, bird, and insect life. The desert habitat is no less important to preserve than rainforests or oceans.

Third, while solar energy is generally considered incredibly eco-friendly, massive solar farms can actually put off quite a bit of heat. A desert-sized solar farm would emit so much heat that it could negatively contribute to global warming and have devastating effects.


In any case, the life-saving beacons are a genius idea and a fantastic use of solar technology. Once the program is fully rolled out, it could save dozens or even hundreds of lives every year.

Just imagine a similar operation conducted in the massive Sahara Desert, or even in remote stretches of the American southwest.

As one commenter stated perfectly, "Now this is the type of innovation for the future I can get behind."

When did cats become pets for humans?

We're all somewhat familiar with the history of house cats, right? At some point in school, we learned something about how ancient Egyptians loved cats and viewed them as gods and that's how we ended up with Whiskers McFluff and Princess Meowface deigning to grace us with their presence in our homes. Right?

That was our understanding of cat domestication for much of modern history. But in the early 2000s, researchers found a burial site on the island of Cyprus that included the skeleton of a human, an offering of stones, tools, and jewelry, and a skeleton of an eight-month-old cat. The site dated to approximately 9,500 years ago—4,000 years before the ancient Egyptians had their feline gods.

egyptian cat gods, cat domestication, cat figurines, pets, pet catPeople often associate cat domestication with ancient Egypt. Photo credit: Canva

"The cat skeleton lay just 40 centimeters away," the researchers wrote. "Both the relative intactness of the skeleton and the surrounding sediment indicated someone had dug a small pit or grave, then placed the cat inside and rapidly covered it."

The cat showed no signs of butchering and it was lying in symmetry with the human, both of their heads facing the same direction, which gives more credence to the idea that the cat may have been a pet or had some kind of relationship with the person. (Today, Cyprus has more cats than people. That should perhaps serve as a warning.)

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

According to PBS Eons, today's domesticated cat—felis catus—is its own species that descended from another species, felis silvestris. A subspecies of felis silvestris from Africa is the direct ancestor of all domesticated cats today, according to genome studies. Those African wildcats can still be found in North Africa and Southwest Asia. They look a lot like house cats but are larger and have less variety in their coat coloring.

But how did we get from those wildcats to our dorky little floofballs? It turns out, we now believe cats were domesticated twice, once in Southwest Asia bout 10,000 years ago and again in Egypt about 3,500 years ago. Again, genome research indicates that the genes of two different source populations contributed to the cat gene pool at two different times and the archeological record also supports that idea.

cats, pet cats, grooming, kitties, pets, felinesadorable cats GIFGiphy

Evidence (and common sense) indicate that cats were welcomed by humans for rodent control, and that may be where domestication began. But we don't really know, and we don't know exactly when or where it began, either. The oldest evidence we have of cat domestication is from Cyprus, but that's an island. Who brought cats there? All we know is that people from Southwest Asia began to migrate to Europe in the Holocene epoch, approximately 11,000 years ago. Clearly, they brought our cats' ancestors with them. Were they already domesticated then? Were the cats just wild stowaways? Nobody knows.

But people are okay not knowing because it's far more fun to come up with jokes about how we've come to today's happy (and hilarious) alliance.

"Here kitty kitty"--Your ancestors 10,000 years ago."

"Meanwhile, cats are debating whether they have fully domesticated humans."

"I could well imagine a cat lecturing on how humans were domesticated."

cat face, cat domestication, cat ancestors, cat, animals, pet catsDid we domesticate cats or did they domesticate us?Photo credit: Canva

"Meanwhile in the Cat Universe: ‘How we enslaved humans.’"

"Kitties domesticated themselves. They saw a large warm cave with lots of food and a creature that would help it take care of it's babies, and was like 'I'm moving in, and I'll tolerate you, I guess' and humans were like 'you're fluffy and cute, okay!'"

"The greatest scam cats ever pulled on us was domestication and we fell for it TWICE."

"I have always considered that millenia ago, in some village somewhere, some lost kitten was crying mournfully, a toddler girl picked it up, it purred, and that was it, we were lost."

"Cat: mew

Humans: so anyway I adopted it."

cat, gif, pet cat, domesticated cat, cat videosWhite Cat Hello GIFGiphy

As Terry Pratchett said, “In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” It does seem like cats just decided at some point that they would allow us feed them in exchange for them letting us look at them and touch their fur. "We domesticated cats" feels like a bit of a misnomer, even if we supposedly did it twice.