DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Amianthus on June 21, 2010, 01:39:53 PM
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A bloody 10-year dispute in the Ugandan jungle ended in mid-2009 with the victors seizing territory held by the vanquished. The episode represents the first solid evidence that chimpanzees kill their rivals to acquire land, and could help explain the evolutionary origins of some aspects of belligerent as well as cooperative behaviour in humans.
John Mitani, a primatologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and his team have observed the Ngogo chimpanzee troop in Uganda's Kibale National Park for over a decade. Between 1999 and 2009, they witnessed 18 lethal attacks led by Ngogo males on another, smaller group of chimps. They also found indirect evidence of another three lethal attacks, making the Ngogo troop one of the most violent groups of chimpanzees so far studied.
With more than 150 individuals, the troop is two or three times as large as other well-studied groups. Superiority in numbers allows it to patrol its territory's hinterlands, where members are likely to encounter smaller, neighbouring troops. "Attacks are made when there's more of us than them," says Mitani.
In mid-2009, his team noticed that the Ngogo chimps had finally seized part of the home range of their rivals, so increasing the size of their territory by 6.4 square kilometres, or 22 per cent. Where only adult males on patrol had previously visited this area, now the team saw them "going in there with females and children and acting and shouting like they would if they were in the middle of their territory", Mitani says. The Ngogo chimps were probably drawn by food: black mulberry trees had begun fruiting in the area around the time of the takeover.
The territorial gain is likely to bring about other advantages. Chimps belonging to troops with large home ranges tend to weigh more than those with less land and their females tend to have more offspring. What's more, territorial gains could draw in females from neighbouring troops, offering more mating opportunities to the males.
Similar changes have been seen in human hunter-gatherer communities, but Mitani cautions against drawing too many parallels between our own battles and those of chimps. Humans go to war for a variety of reasons ranging from disputes over resources to religion, and such conflicts can often be settled by negotiation. "We might be comparing apples and oranges," he says.
In fact, rather than explaining the evolutionary origins of war, chimpanzee disputes could help explain the evolution of human cooperation. Samuel Bowles at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico has used evolutionary models and archaeological evidence to argue that altruism emerged in humans as a result of violent conflicts between groups of people who were willing to die for their comrades and more selfish, individualistic populations ? with the altruistic warriors winning out.
Likewise, says Mitani, the Ngogo chimps worked as tightly knit coalitions to kill their opponents, with benefits for the victorious troop.
"There's definitely an interesting relationship between cooperation and competition in both chimpanzees and in humans," says Michael Wilson, a primatologist at the University of Minnesota in St Paul, who was not involved in the study.
Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.04.021
Original Article (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19064-chimpanzees-kill-to-win-new-territory.html)
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I read somewhere they also do assasination, actual bribes to get somebody killed.
so human-like
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I am wondering how one chimp would bribe another.
I will gladly pay you ten bananas if you off Bongo tomorrow.
Binabos are matriarchal, and make more love than war. I would say they are my favorite primates. Not that I really like primates as much as cats.
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I think it was bananas being used ,guess food payment is alot more of value then in our world
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If there is any raping going on I wonder if they are passing along AIDS to each other.
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not sure chimps has cases of AIDS, I could of swore it was a monkey that got eaten
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The theory is that AIDS was contracted by people infected from the blood of a green monkey. I do not believe that green monkeys are actually green, I did not make up the name. If a monkey can get Aids and a human can get AIDS, then it is almost certain that a chimp will also be susceptible.
Kramer should avoid unprotected sex with all primates, just like everyone else.
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I am wondering how one chimp would bribe another.
Chimpanzees regularly trade services like grooming for other services like sex or, more applicable to this issue, support within the group. And they have been known to trade occasionally trade meat or some highly prized fruit for services. (I learned about this back when someone challenged me to show that trade/capitalism happens in nature.) So yes, chimps bribing other chimps for support as one group moves to take over area held by another group is certainly believable.
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The theory is that AIDS was contracted by people infected from the blood of a green monkey. I do not believe that green monkeys are actually green, I did not make up the name. If a monkey can get Aids and a human can get AIDS, then it is almost certain that a chimp will also be susceptible.
Kramer should avoid unprotected sex with all primates, just like everyone else.
Do you?
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I always avoid sex with lesser primates.
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I always avoid sex with lesser primates.
Involuntary of course, but once you drop your drawers the female chimps make disgusting faces, point at your little pecker and run all the way home laughing and giggling at that tiny morsel of a penis you call manhood, or shall I say boyhood.
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as someone who actually got hit by a chimp, i got doubts humans can do it with humans. the strength level is high I doubt any human can survive it intact.
veternary medicine is not for whimps.
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Kramer, are you 12 years old?
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Kramer, are you 12 years old?
yes when I'm getting down to XO's level.
Here are some fine examples of XO's postINGS in this threat:
XO: I will gladly pay you ten bananas if you off Bongo tomorrow.
XO: Kramer should avoid unprotected sex with all primates, just like everyone else.
XO: I always avoid sex with lesser primates.