This was consistent with the theory that these acts of violence are driven by adaptive fitness benefits, rather than human impacts, the researchers said.Ĭhimpanzees live in well-defined colonies, and groups of males patrol the borders of each colony's territory. The key findings indicate that a majority of violent attackers, and victims of attack, were male. This includes 58 that were directly observed by researchers the rest were counted based on detective work - tell-tale injuries or other circumstances surrounding an animal's death or disappearance. The international study was co-written by more than 30 scientists and gathers data from some 426 combined years of observation, across 18 different chimp communities.Ī total of 152 killings were reported. Instead, murder rates in different chimp communities simply reflect the numerical make-up of the local population. One proposal was that human activity, including destroying habitats and providing food, increased aggression amongst chimpanzees.īut the new findings, published in Nature, suggest this is not the case, the BBC reported. Killing among wild chimpanzees has deep evolutionary roots and is not due to human interference, a major global study on the contentious topic has suggested.Īpart from humans, chimpanzees are the only primates known to gang up on their neighbours with lethal results - but primatologists have long disagreed about the underlying reasons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |