A Four-year War Between Animals
Chimpanzee: love and hate
The protagonists of the war between animals we will talk about are the chimpanzees, perhaps among the best known primates given their use in the film industry, in animal experimentation and in circuses and zoos.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has been studying this species for more than forty years, during which time she has witnessed extraordinary abilities from chimpanzees, such as using tools, mourning the deaths of loved ones or understanding concepts such as justice.
He also found, however, that chimpanzees can match the worst crimes of the human race: child murder and murder to gain power. Among their lesser known behaviors is animal warfare.
Preamble of a war between animals
In 1974 the war between primates broke out, which Jane Goodall in some of her books baptized as the Gombe war, the name of the national park in Tanzania where she studied these primates.
After more than ten years, Goodall began to observe that the chimpanzee community under study, headed by the alpha male Mike, was beginning to divide. The decline of Mike’s reign came when six of the fourteen adult males began to spend some time away from their original group.
The new group occupied a territory south of the rest of the clan and among its members were two young males, named Hugh and Charlie. The males of the two groups avoided each other and patrolled the new territories that had arisen, an anticipation of the war between animals that would break out shortly thereafter.
The beginning of the war between animals
Goodall documented the splitting of the original group into two communities for two years, but was unaware of what was to come. The meetings of the two groups began to be more and more tense: vocalizations and displays, demonstrations of their anger without getting into a fight.
One afternoon in 1974 some primates from the southern group decided to go on a patrol and came across Godi, a male from the northern group. They reached him with caution and immobilized him; when it was now impossible for him to defend himself, they attacked him for about ten minutes.
The outcome of the war between animals
This first murder sparked a real civil war that lasted four years. Gradually the southern community, called Kasakela, killed all the males of the northern community, or Kahama, and kidnapped three females.
The conflict ended with the extermination of the Kahama, allowing the Kasakela to occupy the ancient territory.
This story clearly shows us that these primates do not resemble humans only in their ability to perform good deeds, but also to kill other members of their own species to gain power.
Along with other behaviors typical of this species described by Goodall, such as cannibalism, hunting or the use of tools, the war of the Gombe represents a historical fact in the study of animal behavior.
