{"id":15649,"date":"2026-04-11T13:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15649"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:51:32","slug":"violent-split-in-chimpanzee-group-offers-clues-on-roots-of-human-conflict-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15649","title":{"rendered":"Violent split in chimpanzee group offers clues on roots of human conflict: Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"563\" height=\"342\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-4.jpg 563w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-4-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers have documented a permanent split between the largest-known group of wild chimpanzees, which erupted into a lethal civil war over the past several years \u2014 findings that could help scientists better understand the roots of human conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study, published Thursday in the Science journal, traced 30 years of chimp behavior in Kibale National Park in Uganda and found a transition from cohesion to polarization among the Ngogo population starting in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The journal reported that in June 2015, some chips from the Central and Western clusters, which had previously \u201cpeacefully intermingled,\u201d met near the center of the territories, and the Central chimps chased the others away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two clusters stopped reproducing with each other, and Western males began regularly patrolling Central territory to expand their domain, according to the journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research found that by 2017, Western chimps began attacking Central chimps, starting with the group\u2019s alpha male. It is estimated that the Western group killed at least seven adult males and 17 infants in the Central group between 2018 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Study co-author John Mitani, a primatologist at the University of Michigan, told the journal of one contributing factor: \u201cThe Ngogo chimps were victims of their own success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe group continued to grow and grow and grow, and it reached the size that individuals couldn\u2019t pull together anymore,\u201d he said. The population was once as many as 200 primates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heightened feeding competition and male-male competition exacerbated by reproductive isolation may also have played a role in the fission, the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers pointed to three additional factors that may have acted as catalysts: weakening social ties following the deaths of five adult males in 2014, a change in the alpha male in 2015 and a respiratory epidemic in January 2017 that killed 25 chimpanzees, including four adult males and 10 adult females.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTaken together, these events suggest how networks may fracture in the face of multiple demographic and social changes,\u201d the study noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The authors suggested that the results showed collective violence in humans may have deeper evolutionary roots than previously thought, given that chimpanzees \u2014 one of humanity\u2019s closest living relatives \u2014 do not have ethnicity, religion or language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf chimpanzee groups can polarize, split, and engage in lethal aggression without human-type cultural markers, then relational dynamics may play a larger causal role in human conflict than often assumed,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have documented a permanent split between the largest-known group of wild chimpanzees, which erupted into a lethal civil war over the past several years \u2014 findings that could help scientists better understand the roots of human conflict. The study, published Thursday in the Science journal, traced 30 years of chimp behavior in Kibale National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2629,1623,4070],"class_list":["post-15649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-central","tag-group","tag-study"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Violent split in chimpanzee group offers clues on roots of human conflict: Research - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15649\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Violent split in chimpanzee group offers clues on roots of human conflict: Research - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers have documented a permanent split between the largest-known group of wild chimpanzees, which erupted into a lethal civil war over the past several years \u2014 findings that could help scientists better understand the roots of human conflict. 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