What makes a chimpanzee so much stronger than a human? A 150 lb. chimp
is commonly reported to be 3 to 10 times stronger than 200 lb. human?
If this is true, why? Chimp muscles don't appear very large. Are
theirs a different type? Or more densley packed? Does a chimp's
skeleton possibly provide them with superior mechanical advantage?

Hello matt123456-ga,

There doesn?t seem to be an easy answer to that question.

You can hear what Dr. Jane Goodall has to say on the subject at the
link below.  Scroll down to the 8th question, ?Are chimps several
times stronger than a full grown man? If so, where does all that
strength come from? They don't have overly big muscles.?  Click on
?Jane Goodall Answers? to view a video clip of her response.


Discovery Channel Canada
Gombe
On Camera
http://www.exn.ca/Gombe/camera/


Googlenut

Googlenut- Thank you for the link. I wonder why more information isn't available.

Hello matt123456-ga,

I don?t know why there is not more information.  I was a little surprised myself.

Maybe one of the other researchers will come up with something.

Good luck.

Googlenut

Hi matt123456,

Can a 90-lb. chimp clobber a full-grown man?
"It's a lot easier to get a chimp in roller skates than it is to get
him to pump iron--hence, most of the data on chimp strength is
anecdotal and decidedly unscientific. In tests at the Bronx Zoo in
1924, a dynamometer--a scale that measures the mechanical force of a
pull on a spring--was erected in the monkey house. A 165-pound male
chimpanzee named "Boma" registered a pull of 847 pounds, using only
his right hand (although he did have his feet braced against the wall,
being somewhat hip, in his simian way, to the principles of leverage).
A 165-pound man, by comparison, could manage a one-handed pull of
about 210 pounds. Even more frightening, a female chimp, weighing a
mere 135 pounds and going by the name of Suzette, checked in with a
one-handed pull of 1,260 pounds. (She was in a fit of passion at the
time; one shudders to think what her boyfriend must have looked like
next morning.) In dead lifts, chimps have been known to manage weights
of 600 pounds without even breaking into a sweat. A male gorilla could
probably heft an 1,800-pound weight and not think twice about it."
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_001b.html

Regards,
hummer

This is the only relevant information I could find:

Free-living Chimpanzee Fact Sheet
http://www.cwu.edu/~docentns/docent%20notebook/flfactsheet.html
..." Chimpanzees have robust bodies and powerful arms (Vaughn, 1996).
Because of their dense bones and muscle tissue, chimpanzees? upper
body strength is 8-10 times stronger than that of humans (Rowe,
1996)..."

Thanks Cynthia and Hummer. Doesn't look like there will be a clear
answer, or maybe I just need to add a zero to the price.