Chimps and gorillas were seen fighting for the first time in the wild
Chimpanzees and gorillas don’t usually fight with each other, and in some places, the two species of hominins live together peacefully. So, researchers were shocked and saddened to see them kill each other for the first time.
In 2019, there were two separate sightings in the Loango National Park in Gabon. Both times, there were more chimpanzees than gorillas, and the chimps started the fights. Each time, an infant gorilla was killed.
In a new study that looks at the fighting, scientists hope to learn more about what might be causing the unusual aggression, such as territorial battles, competition for resources, or something else.
Primatologist Tobias Deschner from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany says, “Our observations are the first proof that chimpanzees can kill gorillas when they are around.”
“Now we want to find out what makes these strangely aggressive interactions happen.”
In February 2019, 18 chimpanzees and five gorillas (one silverback, three adult females, and one infant) met for the first time. The meeting lasted 52 minutes. On their way back from a trip into neighboring territory, the chimps met the gorillas.
In December 2019, 27 chimpanzees (some of which were involved in the first incident) and seven gorillas (one silverback, three adult females, one juvenile, and two infants) had a 79-minute interaction. Some of the chimpanzees were also involved in the first incident. Here, the chimps met the gorillas at the start of a patrol along the border of their territory.
In both cases, chimpanzees took a baby gorilla away from its mother and killed it. In the second case, the chimps ate the baby gorilla. In the first fight, the other gorillas were able to get away, but some chimpanzees were hurt.
Now that these rare battles have been written down, the next question is why they happened. Researchers think that the chimpanzees may have seen the baby gorillas as food, that they were competing for food, or that the fights were over territory.
Deschner says, “It’s possible that the fact that chimpanzees, gorillas, and forest elephants all eat the same food in Loango National Park makes them more competitive with each other and sometimes leads to fights between the two great ape species.”
Seeing how chimps and gorillas interact isn’t easy because you have to give them space and respect, there are large areas involved, gorillas are rare, the habitat is different, and so on.
Keeping this in mind, it’s possible that killings between these two species happen more often than the records show. However, it’s interesting to note that the killings happened at times of the year when food like fruit would have been harder to find.
The work at Loango National Park keeps going, and the scientists hope to learn more about how chimpanzees and gorillas interact with each other and with the other hominid species.
Simone Pika, a cognitive biologist at the University of Osnabrück in Germany, says, “We are just starting to understand how competition affects the relationships between the two great ape species in Loango.”
Our study shows that there is still a lot to learn about our closest living relatives, and Loango National Park, with its unique mosaic habitat, is a great place to do so.
