"Planet Earth" video documents Chimpanzee warfare....
We couldn't get a screen-grab, but the excellent Discovery Channel production of their "Planet Earth" video series captures chimpanzees in what can only be described as full-fledged warfare; a large and menacing line of adult chimp males patrolling, in military line abreast fashion, towards a smaller group of chimpanzees of another troupe. As with other videos of chimps hunting or preparing to raid another troupe, the chimps are silent and stealthy as they stalk the forest; and they do so after planning and coordinating their raid in a premeditated fashion. Jane Goodall's reports of the Goombay Park (Tanzania) alpha chimp "Frodo," and other videos of Frodo, show Frodo alternately engaging in bullying behavior that puts the other chimps in a heightened state of anxiety even when Frodo isn't around - "heightened anxiety" bordering on abject terror. But in one video when Frodo leads the troop into a border patrol/border raid, the entire troop immediately calms down and reverts to stealthy behavior, instead of the loud, boisterous behaviour that Frodo appears to incite.
Frodo has long since died (after losing strength from a disease, the oversize bully was driven by the other males grown tired of his terrorizing bullying), and we don't know which troupe the Planet Earth video caught on film.
But the size of this troupe's premeditated and stealthy raid on its neighbors is startlingly similar to a human raid or warfare in the brush, with the troupe's line abreast formation maintaining almost military precision until the moment of first contact with "the enemy" troupe of outnumbered chimps. One female victim barely escapes her beating with her life (maybe to die of injuries later), and at least one male and one infant chimp are killed outright. After the fight is over, and the opposing troupe's chimps have fled the area, the victors take the carcass of the infant chimp and start tearing it apart and eating it, as they would a monkey captured in a hunt. Several chimps can be seen sharing the meat, passing it from one to the other.
From a biological standpoint, cannibalizing the infant provides some instant gratification for the victor chimps, who have exerted alot of energy and taken dangerous risks just to drive the other troupe off from this section of ground.
And, just as ironically, the large size of the victorious troupe poses just as much hazard to an individual chimp's future, as the opposing troupe does: for such a large troupe must scour the range of all available food, meaning that in lean times there will not be enough for all the chimps, and they may be brought to fighting among themselves.
All the above points out that animals do not require tools to engage in organized warfare; and that the violent impulse to compete for food or status can be organized, controlled, focused, and even planned in advance.
Frodo has long since died (after losing strength from a disease, the oversize bully was driven by the other males grown tired of his terrorizing bullying), and we don't know which troupe the Planet Earth video caught on film.
But the size of this troupe's premeditated and stealthy raid on its neighbors is startlingly similar to a human raid or warfare in the brush, with the troupe's line abreast formation maintaining almost military precision until the moment of first contact with "the enemy" troupe of outnumbered chimps. One female victim barely escapes her beating with her life (maybe to die of injuries later), and at least one male and one infant chimp are killed outright. After the fight is over, and the opposing troupe's chimps have fled the area, the victors take the carcass of the infant chimp and start tearing it apart and eating it, as they would a monkey captured in a hunt. Several chimps can be seen sharing the meat, passing it from one to the other.
From a biological standpoint, cannibalizing the infant provides some instant gratification for the victor chimps, who have exerted alot of energy and taken dangerous risks just to drive the other troupe off from this section of ground.
And, just as ironically, the large size of the victorious troupe poses just as much hazard to an individual chimp's future, as the opposing troupe does: for such a large troupe must scour the range of all available food, meaning that in lean times there will not be enough for all the chimps, and they may be brought to fighting among themselves.
All the above points out that animals do not require tools to engage in organized warfare; and that the violent impulse to compete for food or status can be organized, controlled, focused, and even planned in advance.
posted by verifi at 6:36 AM
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