Watch out for the gorillas... of the West. A study published in the journal
IScience
on March 6 reveals that West African gorillas, like their mountain cousins, engage in fights to the death. Until now, these
“deadly group encounters”
were not documented for this species which resides in the dense tropical forests of the African continent. These
“agonistic interactions”
, scientists explain, serve to defend territories, food resources or access to sexual partners.
Led by Shelly Masi, primatologist at the Éco-Anthropologie laboratory (CNRS-MNHN-Université Paris Cité), the work is based on daily observation carried out for 26 years, between 1999 and 2022, in the protected areas of Dzanga-Sangha, in the Republic Central African. Injuries from three dead silverback gorillas and one adult female from four different gorilla groups were recorded and studied.
“Fatal encounters do occur, although rarely”
Scientists were unable to directly observe the events that led to the injuries and deaths. They therefore referred to the
"injury patterns"
of individuals and compared them with two known injury patterns: injuries caused by mountain gorillas during intergroup conflicts and injuries caused by leopards on other animals or on humans.
As a result,
“the pattern of injuries in western gorillas is similar to that in mountain gorillas, suggesting that fatal encounters occur, although rarely, as predicted by sexual selection in a single-male society.
” conclude the researchers.