8legs: Kibale national park, uganda

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The next war has officially begun - and it is between chimps

A permanent split in the Ngogo chimpanzee community created two camps, Western and Central, after a long period of social and spatial separation.
Researchers observed seven attacks on adult males and 17 on infants between 2018 and 2024, indicating rising intergroup violence.
The study notes that the Western group launched sustained and coordinated attacks on Central following the 2018 split.
Chimpanzees killed former allies and, from 2021, infanticide became more common as violence persisted.
The researchers describe the event as a first clearly documented permanent fission in wild chimpanzees with sustained violence.
The research challenges the idea that human warfare is driven primarily by cultural markers such as ethnicity or religion.
The Ngogo community is the largest wild chimpanzee group studied and has been featured in media like Netflix's Chimp Empire.
Scientists estimate such 'chimp wars' may occur roughly once every 500 years.
The study was published in the journal Science, based on three decades of field observations.
Researchers noted a rapid split around 2015, leading to a complete division by 2018.
The division also involved spatial separation with separate territories for Western and Central groups.

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