Of all the species, only two are often prone to violence against others of their kind: humans and chimpanzees. And although scientists previously suggested chimpanzee violence was the result of human impact, a new study debunks that theory, stating that chimpanzees are naturally prone to violence.
The violence exhibited by chimpanzees is more brutal and orchestrated than that seen in lesser species. Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees in Gombe for around 50 years, was the first scientist to see a chimpanzee war in the making. In the 1970s, two groups of chimps split in two and began fighting each other.
Other recorded cases of chimp violence include brutality, such as disembowelment and castration. In fact, some of these cases were so human-like, that one researcher, Josephine Head of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, could only describe it as such after witnessing a particularly brutal chimp murder where the victim was left in a spread-eagle position with its intestines pulled out.
"I feel as though I am looking at a person who has been murdered in a savage attack," she writes.
Many scientists have long held the belief that such violence is a result of humans infringing on chimpanzee habitats. However, an international team of 30 ape researchers, deny that theory.
This team studied over five decades of research from 18 separate chimpanzee communities, particularly looking at 152 specific killings. The majority of chimpanzees attributed with violence were male, and data showed that the acts of violence were not influenced by human impact, but by natural behavior, including shows of power and dominance.
"Wild chimpanzee communities are often divided into two broad categories depending on whether they exist in pristine or human disturbed environments," says study co-author David Morgan, PhD, research fellow with the Lester E Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. "In reality, however, human disturbance can occur along a continuum and study sites included in this investigation spanned the spectrum. We found human impact did not predict the rate of killing among communities."
Scientists believe that by understanding the violence in chimpanzees, we may gain enlightenment on human violence and factors that affect it. This new study suggests that with knowing that chimpanzees come by their violent behaviors naturally, human violent behavior may have less external influence than initially thought, as well.
Of course, humans are more evolved, so chimpanzee research won't tell us everything we need to know about violence in humans. However, such research is still important in preventing chimpanzee aggression in habitats, and perhaps could help officials and park managers in preventing this kind of violence.
