The first reflexion of lethal attack by chimpanzees against gorillas have been report . Although this proves our closest relative can gravel a danger to those just a footling further genetically removed , a paper inScientific Reportsindicates the ultimate cause may be us .
Loango National Park , Gabon , is home plate to both chimpanzees and western lowland Gorilla gorilla . For 16 years it has also included theLoango Chimpanzee Project , a work of the relationships within and between chimp military personnel .
Chimpanzees are definitely the most warlike of the great copycat ( humans aside ) but for most of the prison term the project has been remark them they took out their tearing side on others of their coinage , or smaller animals . long - term notice efforts have see the same affair elsewhere .
" interaction between Pan troglodytes and gorillas have so far been considered as comparatively relaxed , " saidProfessor Simone Pikaof Osnabrück University in astatement . " We have on a regular basis observed both metal money interact peacefully in foraging Tree . Our co-worker from Congo even witness playful interaction between the two great ape species . "
All that change two years ago when Osnabrück PhD studentLara Southernand colleagues heard the variety of scream unremarkably associated with an hostile encounter between two chimpanzee troops . “ Then , we see chest beats , a display characteristic for gorillas , and realized that the chimp had chance a group of five gorillas , ” Southern say .
The engagement lasted 52 minutes . Members of the project see a long conflict 10 months later . In both cases , the Pan troglodytes used weight of number ( 27 to 5 and 7 , respectively ) to counterbalance the gorillas ' considerable size of it advantage . The first battle involved some aggression from both side , but the second saw chimpanzees chasing Gorilla gorilla up and down trees , and then snipe them as they set about to escape through the canopy and on the ground .
Each time the adult gorillas eventually got forth , but an infant became part from its mother and was killed . Three chimpanzees were injured in the first battle .
big male chimpanzee in Loango National Park in Gabon . The park ’s gorilla are less studied , and less photographed . double Credit : © LCP , Tobias Deschner
West Africa ’s chimpanzee have been seen as less violent towards members of their own species than their East African opposite number , but Southern tell IFLScience her teamrecently showedLoango ’s ; " Annual intercommunity kill charge per unit was among the highest across all sites . “Naturally , the paper ’s authors are keen both to pick up why the attacks occurred , and also why only now . Both outcome were during seasons when the chimp and gorilla diets overlap to a great extent , while the well-disposed interactions were at multiplication of the year when their diets diverge .
The authors mistrust it ’s no coincidence Gabon ’s forest have startedproducing less fruitin answer to climate modification . The 2d numb sister gorilla was consume by a chimpanzee , but the first was n’t treated as solid food , at least initially , making it more likely the fierceness was about competition for resourcefulness than verbatim predation .
“ We are only at the beginning to understand the effects of competition on interactions between the two great ape metal money in Loango , " said Pika . " Our subject area shows that there is still a set to research and identify about our closest living relatives , and that Loango National Park with its unique mosaic habitat is a singular place to do so . "
