First-ever documented chimp attacks on gorillas puzzle scientists: study
Claudia Dimuro, Penn Live
July 27, 2021
Chimpanzees and gorillas have generally been observed by scientists to
peacefully coexist.
So, when a group of researchers saw chimps attacking unsuspecting gorillas
with their own eyes, needless to say, they were shocked.
Live Science reports how this study all began in Central Africa (the Loango
National Park in Gabon, to be exact) where researchers from Germany’s
Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology were tracking a group of 27 chimpanzees back in February 2019.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the band of chimps proceeded to unleash a
full-out assault on a group of five gorillas, one of which was an infant.
The infant was captured by the chimps and eventually beaten to death.
Strangely enough, the oddness of the incident didn’t stop there; the study
itself continues to describe how the same group of chimps attacked a
separate troop of gorillas months later in December. These were the first
lethal attacks between the two species to have ever been documented.
In reflecting on these violent clashes between the chimps and gorillas the
scientists are now trying to pin down the answer to that one-word question:
Why? The answer—as with anything living on this planet—may come down to the
simple matter of survival.
“It could be that sharing of food resources by chimpanzees, gorillas and
forest elephant in Loango National Park results in increased competition
and sometimes even in lethal interactions between the two great ape
species,” explains one of the researchers, Tobias Deschner.
“We are only beginning to understand the effects of competition on
interactions between the two great ape species in Loango,” adds researcher
Simone Pika. “Our study shows that there is still a lot to explore and
discover about our closest living relatives, and that Loango National Park
with its unique mosaic habitat Is a unique place to do so.”
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2021/07/first-ever-documented-chimp-attacks-on-gorillas-puzzle-scientists-study.html
First-ever documented chimp attacks on gorillas puzzle scientists: study
Claudia Dimuro, Penn Live
July 27, 2021
Chimpanzees and gorillas have generally been observed by scientists to
peacefully coexist.
So, when a group of researchers saw chimps attacking unsuspecting gorillas
with their own eyes, needless to say, they were shocked.
Live Science reports how this study all began in Central Africa (the Loango
National Park in Gabon, to be exact) where researchers from Germany’s
Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology were tracking a group of 27 chimpanzees back in February 2019.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the band of chimps proceeded to unleash a
full-out assault on a group of five gorillas, one of which was an infant.
The infant was captured by the chimps and eventually beaten to death.
Strangely enough, the oddness of the incident didn’t stop there; the study
itself continues to describe how the same group of chimps attacked a
separate troop of gorillas months later in December. These were the first
lethal attacks between the two species to have ever been documented.
In reflecting on these violent clashes between the chimps and gorillas the
scientists are now trying to pin down the answer to that one-word question:
Why? The answer—as with anything living on this planet—may come down to the
simple matter of survival.
“It could be that sharing of food resources by chimpanzees, gorillas and
forest elephant in Loango National Park results in increased competition
and sometimes even in lethal interactions between the two great ape
species,” explains one of the researchers, Tobias Deschner.
“We are only beginning to understand the effects of competition on
interactions between the two great ape species in Loango,” adds researcher
Simone Pika. “Our study shows that there is still a lot to explore and
discover about our closest living relatives, and that Loango National Park
with its unique mosaic habitat Is a unique place to do so.”
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2021/07/first-ever-documented-chimp-attacks-on-gorillas-puzzle-scientists-study.html
