A new study has revealed the grisly details after the once harmonious existence between Western and Central Ngogo chimpanzees inside the Kibale National Park in Uganda took a violent turn nearly a decade ago.
According to a study published by the journal Science on Thursday (April 9), the two factions “started to scream, shout, chase each other” in 2015, a warning sign of what was to come after, at least, two decades of tranquility. Three years later, the study started to observe a series of fatal attacks that were carried out by the Western chimpanzees on Central chimpanzees.
By 2021, the violence started to include infants. At least 28 chimpanzees, of which 19 were infants, have been killed. An average of one adult male and two infant Central chimpanzees have been murdered by the Western group every year between 2018 and 2024, according to the study.
Primatologist Aaron Sandel highlights how the aggressors, the Central chimpanzees, have ruthlessly acted in packs throughout this course of hostile behavior, separating Central mothers from their infants before pummeling them to death, according to NBC News.
“There’ll be like five or 10 chimps piled on him, holding him down, biting him, slamming their fists on him, kicking him, dragging him,” Sandel said. “They’ll rip off their testicles.”
Sandel and John Mitani, professor emeritus in the department of anthropology at the University of Michigan, have speculated that the number of Ngogo chimpanzees, which totaled about 200, may have created a division, citing the inability to maintain social connections, as well as clashes over food and partners.
There have also been concerns over the emergence of a new alpha male in 2015, which, according to Mitani, “disrupts matters quite a bit, levels of aggression can increase, social relationships can be altered.”
