The sites included famous chimp and bonobo hangouts such as the Gombe and Mahale national parks in Tanzania, Kibale in Uganda, Fongoli in Senegal, and Lomako in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To test between the two hypotheses, a large team of primatologists led by Michael Wilson of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, analyzed data from 18 chimpanzee communities, along with four bonobo communities, from well-studied sites across Africa. Feeding chimps can also increase their population density by causing them to cluster around human camps, thus causing more competition between them. For example, when humans cut down forests for farming or other uses, the loss of habitat forces chimps to live in close proximity to one another and to other groups. Primatologists have concluded that their territorial battles are evolutionarily adaptive.īut some anthropologists have resisted this interpretation, insisting instead that today's chimps are aggressive only because they are endangered by human impact on their natural environment. The findings run contrary to recent claims that chimps fight only if they are stressed by the impact of nearby human activity-and could help explain the origins of human conflict as well.Įver since primatologist Jane Goodall's pioneering work at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in the 1970s, researchers have been aware that male chimps often organize themselves into warring gangs that raid each other's territory, sometimes leaving mutilated dead bodies on the battlefield. But a major new study of warfare in chimpanzees finds that lethal aggression can be evolutionarily beneficial in that species, rewarding the winners with food, mates, and the opportunity to pass along their genes. Many humans would agree with this sentiment. War-what is it good for? "Absolutely nothing" according to the refrain of a 1970 hit song.
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