The world's largest known group of wild chimpanzees has split and been locked in a vicious civil war for the last eight years, according to researchers.
It is not clear exactly why the once close-knit community of Ngogo chimpanzees at Uganda's Kibale National Park are at loggerheads, but since 2018 the scientists have recorded 24 killings, including 17 infants.
These were chimps that would hold hands, lead author Aaron Sandel said. Now they're trying to kill each other. The study, published in the journal Science, states that the intensity and duration of the violence may inform our understanding of how early human conflict developed.
Sandel, an anthropologist from the University of Texas and co-director of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, notes that chimpanzees are very territorial and tend to have hostile interactions with those from other groups. He remarked that over decades, nearly 200 Ngogo chimpanzees had lived in harmony but began to polarize starting in 2015.
Following a dispute where Western chimpanzees were chased by the Central group, the violence escalated, resulting in multiple targeted attacks and killings. Factors such as the deaths of key adult males, changes in leadership, and a respiratory epidemic appear to have played significant roles in the group's transformation.
The researchers suggest that their findings encourage a reevaluation of our understanding of human conflict, highlighting that relational dynamics may be more critical than often believed. In light of this, they warn about the dangers group divisions pose to societies.
