Chimpanzees seen Killing Gorillas for the first Time

 

Scientists have announced that, for the first time, chimpanzees have been seen in their natural habitat killing gorillas in attacks for no apparent reason.

The deadly attacks were observed in Loango National Park, Gabon, according to an article published in "Nature" magazine.

The first case was recorded on February 6, 2019, when a group of 27 chimpanzees attacked five gorillas.

"At first, we only registered chimpanzee screams and we thought we were facing a typical encounter between individuals from neighbouring chimpanzee communities," explained Lara M. Southern, responsible for the research, in a statement.

"But then we heard chest pounding, a gorilla display characteristic, and we realized that the chimpanzees had encountered a group of five gorillas," he added.

While the adult gorillas managed to escape, a cub that separated from its mother did not survive, according to the "Nature" article. The attack lasted 52 minutes.

Investigators reveal that a similar attack happened on December 11, 2019 - 27 chimpanzees attacked seven gorillas - and the victim was also a gorilla cub. In this case, instead of the dead gorilla being abandoned, "it was almost completely consumed by an adult female chimpanzee", the study reports. The attack lasted 79 minutes.

These encounters were totally different from how the two species normally interact with each other; point out researchers from the University of Osnabrück and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. While both species can be territorial and violent, fights take place almost exclusively between elements of the species itself.

"We have regularly observed peaceful interactions between the two species in trees. Our colleagues from Congo have even witnessed fun interactions between the two species of great apes," said Simone Pika, a biologist at the University of Osnabrück.

Researchers believe that more studies are needed to understand what is at the root of this change in behaviour.

"Our observations provide the first evidence that the presence of chimpanzees can have a lethal impact on gorillas. Now we want to investigate the factors that trigger these surprisingly aggressive interactions," said Tobias Deschner, primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, quoted. In a statement.

Saisi