Interesting summary from Science Daily on a study published in Nature that examined what influences chimpanzees to engage in violence against other chimpanzees. Some researchers had speculated that destruction of chimpanzees’ natural habitat and other encroachments by humans was responsible for violence among chimpanzees, but the study in Nature contradicts this.
A team of 30 ape researchers assembled extensive data sets spanning five decades of research gathered from 18 chimpanzee communities experiencing varying degrees of human influence. In all, data included pattern analysis of 152 killings by chimpanzees. The key findings indicate that a majority of violent attackers and victims of attack are male chimpanzees, and the information is consistent with the theory that these acts of violence are driven by adaptive fitness benefits rather than human impacts.
“Wild chimpanzee communities are often divided into two broad categories depending on whether they exist in pristine or human disturbed environments,” explained [study co-author David] Morgan. “In reality, however, human disturbance can occur along a continuum and study sites included in this investigation spanned the spectrum. We found human impact did not predict the rate of killing among communities.