11/29/2023 0 Comments Chimpanzee baby eatingThis research provides the first evidence that chimpanzees can have a lethal impact on gorillas. Whatever the reason, it remains to be seen if and when a fatal encounter between the two species will be observed again. Infanticide is common during these raids. This explanation also fits the behaviours of the chimpanzees, which bore similarities to intraspecific encounters between rival groups. Previously peaceful co-feeding between the two species occurred during April – a month of low dietary overlap. Gorillas and chimpanzees have high dietary overlap, and the attacks occurred during times of food scarcity with increased competition for fruit resources. After the baby gorillas were killed, the adult male chimpanzees showed little interest in the carcasses in contrast with hunting forays when the adult males are normally first to feed.Īnother possibility is that the encounters were a product of interspecific competition (as might occur between lions and hyenas, for example). During the encounters, the chimpanzees were highly vocal, emitting alarm barks and screams and performing threat displays. However, the behaviour during the attacks does not fit with observed hunting behaviours – both before and after the interactions. The first, and probably most obvious, is that the attacks are opportunistic predation by the chimpanzees. The researchers offer several possible explanations for these attacks. In this instance, the dead baby was almost entirely consumed. An adolescent chimpanzee was then observed holding the infant gorilla carcass. Surrounded by eight adult male chimpanzees and one adolescent female, she was apparently unable to hold on to her infant and was observed without it a short while later. She managed to escape, but another female gorilla was not as fortunate. When one female tried to escape with her infant, she was challenged by the adult male chimpanzees, who then tried to pry the infant from her. This time, the silverback climbed out of the trees and fled. A group of around 27 chimpanzees encountered a group of gorillas in the canopy and surrounded them. The second encounter also involved some of the same individual chimpanzees from the Rekambo community and played out over 79 minutes in December 2019. Its body was passed between chimp group members but not eaten. During the chaos, an infant gorilla was separated from its mother and killed. Though the silverback attempted to defend himself and the rest of the group, he was surrounded by a group of around nine male chimpanzees who eventually chased him off. A subgroup of 18 chimpanzees encountered approximately five gorillas, including a silverback. The first lethal encounter occurred in February 2019, involved a confrontation between chimpanzees of the Rekambo community and gorillas, and lasted for 56 minutes. The supplementary material includes two videos of the interspecies clashes. The two attacks are described in detail in a paper published in Scientific Reports. However, where chimps and gorillas overlap, their interactions have previously always been observed to be relaxed, peaceful and, occasionally, playful. Male coalitions of chimpanzees, in particular, are known to travel into neighbouring communities and launch attacks on adjacent troops of chimps. Intraspecific killing (within a species) has been observed across chimpanzee and gorilla groups throughout their various ranges in Africa. This, in turn, has led researchers from the Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, to question whether habitat loss and climate change have increased competition for food and led to increasingly aggressive encounters between the two species. Interestingly, the Loango Chimpanzee Project has researched these chimpanzee troops for over 16 years, yet this is the first time they have observed lethal coalitionary attacks. In each case, an infant gorilla was killed. During the two observed events in Loango National Park, Gabon, chimpanzees approached and intimidated smaller troops of western lowland gorillas. Researchers have recorded the first known instance of chimpanzees killing gorilla babies.
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