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Because of global warming?

Chimpanzees were first observed preying on gorillas due to famine distress

Chimpanzees living in Luango National Park in Africa have been spotted attacking and killing gorillas, who previously lived alongside them in peace.

Enmity between the sexes began following competition for food resources that are shrinking due to climate change

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• Chimpanzees

• Gorillas

• global warming

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Monday, 02 August 2021, 00:13

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Chimpanzees attack gorillas (© LCP, Lara M. Southern)

Chimpanzees in Luango National Park in Gabon, Africa, were first spotted attacking, killing and preying on gorillas that also inhabit the area.

According to the researchers, these are the first observations of their kind, as these have lived in peace until recent years, but they believe that the shortage of food caused by global warming is what brought both sexes to war, CNN reported.

A team of scientists from Osnabruck University and the Max Planck Institute attest to two deadly attacks by both sexes in a competition for dwindling food.

Between 2014 and 2018, researchers observed nine cases in which chimpanzees and gorillas lived in peaceful interaction and were even fed together from the fruit trees.

The harmony ceased in 2019, when on two occasions chimpanzees formed a united group and attacked a group of gorillas, attacks that lasted 124 minutes, ending in two dead gorilla babies.

The second session ended with a dead baby being devoured almost entirely by an adult chimpanzee female.

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A pair of chimpanzees in the War of the Sexes (Photo: screenshot, LCP, Lara M.soutern)

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Tobias Dashner, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in a statement in the Daily Mail: "Caused by the recent phenomenon of climate change and the cessation of fruit availability as observed in other tropical forests in Gabon."

View the documentation of the attack

The first deadly encounter, which lasted 52 minutes, was observed on February 6, 2019 and "occurred after a territorial patrol during which gorillas invaded the territory of chimpanzees," according to a study published in Scientific Reports. A group of 27 chimpanzees encountered a group of five silver-backed gorillas in the trees, which led to an angry reaction from the chimpanzees who started screaming. One of the gorillas pounced on an adolescent female chimpanzee and "took the air out of her lungs." Then, two minutes later, a group of nine male chimpanzees and at least one adult female chimpanzee surrounded the gorilla. The chimpanzees began to jump violently up and down and hit her, until she eventually escaped and returned to his group. Shortly after the brutal encounter, the researchers noticed a male chimpanzee, named Litgary, holding a gorilla baby while sitting on the ground, a gorilla tested by three other chimpanzees.

"Litgari sniffed the baby, placed it on the ground in front of him and hit him three times with his right hand. At this point the gorilla baby was still alive because there were short creaks and whimpering sounds. At 17:27 (25 minutes since they met), and directly following a distress call from "The baby gorilla, the sound of another gorilla is heard close to there," the study said. The baby was then transferred between two other chimpanzees, but stopped screaming at 5:53 p.m., and scientists noticed his small body lying there lifeless.

The second lethal encounter, which lasted 72 minutes, was observed on December 11, 2019 by observation crews following a group of 27 chimpanzees moving around the area. "Given the direction and covert behavior of the current individuals, including the frequent sniffing of the soil and vegetation, a territorial invasion appeared imminent," the study said. The incident began at 12:26 p.m., when a chimpanzee named Freddie stopped by and sounded a loud alarm. Two minutes later the chimpanzees spotted a rustling tree where a female gorilla was resting. When the gorilla noticed the chimpanzees below she began to hit her chest and read aloud and in less than a minute a group of other gorillas rushed to her aid in the tree.

The arrival of the four gorillas and the two babies did not deter the aggressive chimpanzees, who began to prepare for the attack. All the gorillas managed to escape except for one female and her baby, who began to move around the trees hoping to elude their enemies. At 12:50 the gorilla female, without her baby, was seen climbing up a nearby tree and managed to escape, "the study said," a minute later a teenage chimpanzee named Caesar is seen holding the dead gorilla baby's body, which has a large open incision in the abdomen as the intestines hang out. When one of the researchers looked closely at what was happening, he noticed a female chimpanzee eating small pieces of meat from the ends of the dead gorilla baby.

The authors of the study are interested in learning why these attacks occurred and also why only now.

Both events were in seasons when the food sources of the chimpanzees and gorillas overlapped while the friendly interactions were at times of the year when their diet changed.

Researchers suspect that it is no coincidence that the forests in Gabon have begun to produce less fruit and that this is happening in response to climate change.

"We are just beginning to understand the effects of competition on the interrelationships between the two great apes in Luango," said Prof. Simona Pique.

"Our research shows that there is much more to explore and discover about our closest relatives, and that Luango National Park with its unique habitat is the place to do it."

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