Source: Documentary Humanities Channel
Text/Guanwen Shi said
Editor/Guanwen Shi said
Have you ever imagined a chimpanzee war as fierce as a human being unfolding? It's not a fictional movie scene, it's a real story that happened in reality. [Floating clouds]
Ever heard of a "genocidal" massacre among chimpanzees?
The chimpanzee colony on the banks of Gombe Creek in Africa has experienced a brutal war that lasted for four years, and this war without gunpowder was more thrilling than any movie.
This bloody battle, which lasted for four years, subverted people's common perception of this seemingly docile animal, in this world without gunpowder, hand-to-hand combat, tearing skin...... Such a brutal scene is shocking.
So why is there such a fierce fight between chimpanzees? Let's uncover the little-known secrets behind this primitive war.
01
Unraveling the chimpanzee
Chimpanzees, a large, intelligent primate, share a long history with us humans.
Their genetic sequences are strikingly similar to humans, about 98.8%, which makes our research on these "essences of the universe" all the more important.
Chimpanzees are quite unique in size, with males generally weighing between 56 kg and 80 kg, while females weigh around 45 kg to 60 kg.
Ranging in length from 70 cm to 93 cm and up to 1.7 m tall when standing, these behemoths are not loners, but live in groups, usually consisting of 2 to 20 chimpanzees, led by a powerful male orangutan.
Although chimpanzees were once thought to feed mainly on leaves, fruits, and flowers, with the deepening of scientific research, we have found that they are also meat eaters, such as small antelopes, small monkeys, small baboons and other animals are their prey.
Surprisingly, chimpanzees are also very close to humans in terms of their reproductive cycles, with females having a gestation of 8 to 9 months, making them vulnerable targets in nature.
Despite this, chimpanzee mothers show incredible love and care, and are often observed holding their cubs in their arms and using tools to provide them with food.
Going back to the evolution of humans themselves, our direct ancestors used to be a large family, and under the family Homo, we found four different genera, including Homo, Chimpanzee, Gorilla and Orangutan.
Since only Homo sapiens remained, researchers turned to chimpanzees, the closest creature to humans, in an attempt to reveal the secrets of our ancestors.
There is an interesting twist on the relationship between humans and chimpanzees.
About 30 million years ago, our common ancestor forked into two different paths: macaques and humans/chimpanzees.
It was not until about 5 million years ago that humans and chimpanzees followed different evolutionary paths.
02
The chimpanzee population is broken
Jenny Goodall, an internationally renowned zoologist dedicated to the study of chimpanzees, has traveled to the African continent for more than 50 years, living with chimpanzee families and studying their behavior and social organization.
In fact, chimpanzees are far more intelligent and cruel than humans can imagine.
In the vast rainforests of Gombe Creek National Park, Goodall witnessed a shocking civil war between the chimpanzee tribes – a power struggle within the Gombe chimpanzee family.
The brutal war began with the death of the head of the family, Niche (the names of the chimpanzees and the race were all given by Jenny Goodall), who maintained family harmony with his strong leadership and fighting power.
But when Niche died, the family fell into a leaderless situation, and the chimpanzee family urgently needed a chimpanzee with leadership skills to succeed him.
Chimpanzees are polygamous creatures, and the male leader is happy to dominate the tribe, enjoying the privilege of mating and preferential access to resources.
Normally, the new leader should be the strongest chimpanzee, able to firmly hold power and lead the group to a new life, but in Goodall's view, the Kasakra group has changed this upside down.
Although a chimpanzee named Humphrey initially took over as leader, not all chimpanzees were completely subservient to it, and as a result, the Kasakra group fell into a state of fragmentation.
A group of chimpanzees chose to support and follow Humphrey, who Goodall called the new Casakra family and migrated north from their original territory.
Hugh and Charlie, two chimpanzees, expressed great disobedience to him, and constantly targeted Humphrey in an attempt to remove him and create a separate group, and sure enough, they set up their own doors and formed a branch of Kasakra called Kamha.
Compared to the twelve females and eight males owned by the Kasakra family, the Kamaha family has only three females and six males.
The Kamaha family, who were not superior in numbers, were in no way inferior to the Kasakra family in terms of combat effectiveness, so the war between the two families lasted for two years, but no definite outcome was reached.
In the end, the two sides had to compromise and redivide the territory in a peaceful way, with one family breaking up into two.
Despite daily skirmishes and friction between the two families over resources, both sides can barely survive in their respective territories and find their own ways to survive.
Goodall studied chimpanzees for more than 50 years and found that chimpanzees were more intelligent and cruel than one might think, and that they would behave exactly like humans, including power struggles and territorial struggles.
Just like human society, the chimpanzee world has no shortage of power struggles, no shortage of territorial battles, and these chimpanzees are driven by great wisdom and courage to carry out bloody and brutal battles for the benefit of the community.
03
Battle of the Chimpanzees
The relative peace of the Kasakla and Kamaha chimpanzees guarding their territory in the jungles of Tanzania's Gombe region is silent, and the chimpanzees of the Kasakra and Kamaha communities guard their territory, maintaining a territorial balance and fighting only occasionally for food when needed, but this relative peace is not destined to last long.
In the early morning of January 7, 1974, the jungle was filled with tension, and due to the unique topography, dense trees and dense canopy, the chimpanzees took full advantage of this natural barrier, and each group hid in its own area, with no intention of crossing the border, but it was this private territory that was so desperately maintained that it suffered an unprecedented encounter on this day.
It started with Gordy, a young chimpanzee from Camaha, who often ventured to jump and happily weave through trees, but unfortunately he hit the ground from the tree and caught the attention of the chimpanzees around him.
At the very moment when Gordy fell from the tree, five Kasakra chimpanzees surrounded him almost in a frenzy, chewing with their sharp teeth and scratching his body desperately.
Gordy screamed loudly, but could not escape their deadly attack, when a chimpanzee from nearby suddenly appeared, holding a heavy stone in his hand.
It lifted the stone and slammed it into Gordy's moribund body, and with the brutal thud, Gordy finally fell to the ground, closing his eyes forever.
This sudden murder was undoubtedly orchestrated.
Despite the fact that the Kamaha population is outnumbered, with only 10 chimpanzees, and the Kasakra group has more than 20 adult chimpanzees, the Kamaha community is fighting for revenge for the bloodshed.
A war between the North and the South was about to begin, but I didn't expect it to last for four years.
As the war broke out, the brutal atrocities of both sides quickly caught the attention of Jenny Goodall, and the Kasakra tribe took advantage of the morale of the rivers and mountains to preemptively display their numbers and cunning.
Gordy's death was just the beginning, and over the next four years, the Kamaha tribe was defeated, and their efforts were in vain, and the victorious Kamakra took control of the Kamaha tribe's territory, expanding it to the edge of history.
If you think this absurd farce is over completely, then you are wrong.
04
Rivalry with Callander
In this four-year war of Gombe chimpanzees, the Kasa tribe suffered huge losses, as the owners of the original territory, they faced the danger of being caught between the Kalande tribe in the south and the Mituba tribe in the north, and at the darkest hour of the Kasa tribe, the whole camp was filled with tension and despair.
Whenever the chimpanzees of the Kalander tribe roar in the mountains to the south, the hearts of the Kasa tribe warriors are filled with a sense of powerlessness and fear.
They could clearly hear the mockery and contempt that made them feel that they were no longer masters of the land, but scattered wanderers.
During the chimpanzee war in the Gombe region, the Kasa tribe experienced one of the darkest and most difficult times. The Kasa tribe, which was originally equal in strength to the southern neighbor Kaland, suffered heavy losses in an infighting, and it was this weakness that was seized by the Kalander tribe, who took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack to seize the territory of Kassa.
The Kalande tribe was overwhelmed, and although the Kasa tribe still struggled to resist, they helplessly watched as their territory continued to shrink, and their living space was compressed to only 5 square kilometers.
At the same time, the Mituba tribe also saw the weakness of the Kasa and took the opportunity to join in the revenge against the Kasa, and the Kasa tribe was caught between the two hostile forces of the north and the south, and the situation was extremely dangerous, and even the female chimpanzees near the camp could not survive and were killed.
By 1981, there were only four adult male chimpanzees left in the Kasa tribe, and it looked like it was impossible to reverse the unstoppable war.
At this most critical moment, the Kasa tribe ushered in a turning point, and four juvenile chimpanzees, who were originally not yet adults, grew into "people" overnight.
Although they were not strong enough to participate directly in the battle, they bravely roared with their fathers, successfully stirring the fear in the hearts of their enemies, causing them to misjudge the strength of the Kasa tribe.
The two tribes, Calland and Mituba, decided to stop their offensive and withdraw to their own territories, leaving no more bloodshed after a standoff along the border.
The Gombe Chimpanzee War has finally come to an end, and the forest has regained its tranquility and balance, and although the Kasa tribe has suffered great damage in this war, fortunately, the younger generation of chimpanzees have grown up into adult males in time, and their efforts have allowed the Kasa tribe to survive and gain precious respite.
This war between chimpanzees undoubtedly reveals the cruelty and bloodshed of their wild depths, which is also the primitive instinct that evolution has given to chimpanzees to help them survive in the distant barbaric era.
When Jenny Goodall's account was published, there was a great deal of discussion in the academic community, with some believing that Jenny Goodall intervened in the lives of chimpanzees that led to these behaviors.
There are also some scholars who believe that this is the nature of animals, and they also behave like humans.
In 2017, another incident occurred that made everyone conclusive.
05
Cruelty within chimpanzee society
In the forests of Senegal, life among chimpanzees is marked by constant fighting and brutality, and in 2017, a shocking murder once again demonstrated the brutal side of the chimpanzee's social power struggle.
In 2017, a group of chimpanzees orchestrated a coup d'état against their male leader, who was collectively ostracized by the team for appointing an unpopular chimpanzee as an assistant.
Finally, one day, the former leader was expelled from the group and subjected to fierce attacks from men and women of his own race, who threw stones, brandished wooden sticks, and continued to bounce on him after he died.
Chimpanzees do not understand the concept of "death" in the same way as humans, so after the death of their victims, their own people continue to abuse their corpses, and some even begin to eat them.
This proves their victory once and for all and sends a warning to other chimpanzees who are watching in silence.
The tragedy also revealed the problem of domestic violence within chimpanzee society, and for female chimpanzees, life is not as peaceful and pleasant as people think.
Male chimpanzees demonstrate their territory and reproductive abilities in a way that is not only brutal but also frightening, kicking, biting, slamming females on the head, and pulling out their hair, just to show their strength and induce females to want to mate with them.
Sadly, competition within the chimpanzee population has led to child tragedy, with male chimpanzees killing offspring of other male chimpanzees to ensure that their genes are passed on.
To this end, female chimpanzees strategically mate with multiple males in order to hide the real father of their offspring.
The cruelty of chimpanzees does not stop there, and in some cases, females are also involved in the killing of children, especially new females and their cubs who have cunning into the tribe, and they brutally kill young children and use them as food.
The killing of chimpanzees is not just an unusual event, they repeat such tragic scenes in a society of competition and intrigues.
In chimpanzee society, the struggle between individuals also favors the selection of the traits that best adapt to the environment, and those who are highly aggressive and authoritative are often more likely to achieve reproductive success, and then pass on this aggressive gene to the next generation.
In other words, brutality in chimpanzee society is a product of evolution to adapt to a competitive environment.
Like this incident, many scholars believe that the "human nature" of chimpanzees is "evil", which can also point out some of the "dross" that we have removed in the process of human evolution, and it is precisely because of evolution that we have restrained wild thoughts and behaviors. #文章首发挑战赛#
Reference Sources:
Documentary Humanities Channel: It's hard to save the world, but she's still running