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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
In 2019, in Gabon's Luango National Park, there were two large-scale group fights between chimpanzees and gorillas.
The 27 chimpanzees fought 5 and 7 gorillas twice, and the larger gorillas were defeated twice, losing a cub companion each time.
The silverback gorilla cubs that were killed the second time were almost all in the belly of one of the chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees eat meat and gorillas eat vegetarians, so why do they fight twice in a row, and chimpanzees even eat their baby gorillas?
«Chimpanzee's "socialization" behavior·]
The chimpanzee's behavior of attacking the gorillas is somewhat shocking, and they have all gotten along relatively well until then.
In October 2022, chimpanzees and gorillas were photographed playing in the same tree in the rainforests of Congo.
This shows that they can get along with each other, but why do they still have conflicts in the park, and twice?
A researcher in the United States had been working with chimpanzees for decades to study how chimpanzees grow.
She first discovered that chimpanzees love to eat termites, and they will make tools to escape from termite burrows, find a suitable branch, pinch the head and tail to the right thickness and length, and pluck off all the leaves on it.
Then you will reach into the termite hole and hang a whole bunch of termites, after which you can enjoy the food.
When encountering a hard fruit, it will use the force between the stones to knock it open.
This kind of tool-making seems somewhat rudimentary to humans, but for animals that have lived in the jungle for a long time, it is indeed part of their life tools.
Chimpanzees are mainly found in tropical environments, but they are concentrated in Africa, where they spend most of the day in trees, and only choose to go down when there are no resources in the trees.
Chimpanzees are very similar in morphology to gorillas, reaching a height of 1.7 meters when standing and weighing between 100 and 150 pounds, close to the size of an adult male.
It is a social animal, but the closeness between the group is not strong, they can rebel against each other at any time, and there is a certain hierarchical relationship in the group, and only strong males can be the leader.
Although they have leaders, they are not unreasonable like other animal leaders, they will participate in group hunting, but they have their own set of "rules" for the distribution of prey.
Even if the weakest chimpanzee in the team catches the prey, then the distribution of the prey is distributed by the captor, and the chimpanzee leader will not interfere.
Unlike other apes, chimpanzees have a complex diet, preying on the young of wild boars or large mammals such as antelopes, and sometimes even cannibalism.
In 2007, a giant chimpanzee was spotted in Africa, living deep in the jungles of the Congo, a super-large chimpanzee with a mysterious obsession with eating big cats.
The chimpanzee has been observed eating the carcass of a leopard, but it is unknown whether the leopard died at the hands of a chimpanzee.
However, from the perspective of its habitat, there are often tigers or lions around the nest, and a small half of its nest is on the ground, unlike other chimpanzees that are completely perched on trees, which shows that it is not afraid of these large beasts.
«【Silverback Gorilla's Strength·】»
Gorillas are much larger than chimpanzees and are the largest primates ever discovered.
In terms of overall height, the gorilla is slightly taller than the chimpanzee, but it has the disadvantage that it does not have straight legs, otherwise it is much taller than the chimpanzee.
Female gorillas alone weigh much more than chimpanzees, weighing between 120 and 200 pounds, while males weigh about twice as much as females.
Therefore, when 27 chimpanzees in the zoo play against 7 gorillas, the disparity in strength is narrowed, and if it is single-handed, the gorillas should be better.
Compared to carnivorous chimpanzees, gorillas seem to be much more elegant, they are vegetarians, and there is no conflict between the two in terms of food sources.
Gorillas are mainly distributed near the equator in Africa, and there is some overlap with the habitat of chimpanzees.
It feeds on fresh leaves, fruits, branches, etc., and is certainly not as physical as the meat-eating chimpanzee, and its endurance in battle is relatively poor.
The two clashes that broke out in the zoo lasted 52 minutes and 79 minutes respectively, and it is clear that the gorillas are in a weak position, but they have tried their best to hold on for so long.
The gorilla lost face in the battle with the chimpanzee, but when it came to the leopard, it did a good job of defending.
The gorilla's move is to retreat as advance, and to defend as an offense.
Its offensive ability is limited, but its general physique of more than 300 is still very intimidating, and although it cannot successfully kill the leopard, it can easily protect itself.
And gorillas are vegetarians, even if they hunt leopards, it is only a waste of effort, and there is a possibility that other natural predators will be attracted because of the leopard's bloody gas, which will outweigh the losses.
Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are inferior to leopards and often become the belly of leopards, and from the perspective of their common enemies, gorillas seem to be slightly stronger than chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees and gorillas are likely to clash with gorillas because of the over-cutting of Gabon's rainforest, which has squeezed their living space.
The population safety distance between the two is constantly narrowing, and they are both keenly aware of the existential crisis, which makes them have to fight each other.
«【Evolution of the Orangutan·】»
There is a very high order of "socialization" between both chimpanzees and gorillas.
In January 2020, two chimpanzee mothers and sons in a zoo in Xi'an would sit curiously on tires and read the newspaper, and would change positions when they were tired of reading.
They also sometimes imitate the behavior of their keepers, doing laundry, sweeping the floor, and so on.
Human studies of orangutans have found that they are up to 98 percent genetically similar to humans, and sometimes chimpanzees are even more similar.
Chimpanzees that survive in the wild also wage war and fight other chimpanzee groups in order to get more food and habitat.
In this way, there are traces of chimpanzees besieging gorillas.
In addition, chimpanzees have a good memory, and in many experiments, chimpanzees' memory ability is superior in accuracy and speed.
This innate advantage of chimpanzees may be more conducive to their survival.
Through continuous evolution, they gradually seek greater possibilities for their survival, but with some illegal poaching in their habitat, their survival situation is not optimistic.
Both chimpanzees and gorillas belong to the primate order and they are now endangered animals that need human protection.
Reference:
Xinhua News Agency New Media, "Chimpanzees "Beat Gorillas in the Wild", 2021-7-23
Beijing News, "Chimpanzee Reading Newspaper Called "Animal Scholar", Breeder: Or Curious About Patterns", 2020-1-16
Xinhuanet, "Giant chimpanzees found in Africa, local legend can eat a lion", July 19, 2007