"We are only at the beginning to understand the effects of competition on interactions between the two species in Loango," says Simone Pika, a cognitive biologist at Osnabrück University. It may have become an instinct for the monkeys to fight over food and territory. "We now want to investigate the factors triggering these surprisingly aggressive interactions." Why the Gentle Giants Have "Gone Sour"Īlthough these species of great apes have lived in harmony for so long and shared resources in their habitat, a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggest that the lethal attacks of chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild could be driven by limited resources and competition thereof. "Our observations provide the first evidence that the presence of chimpanzees can have a lethal impact on gorillas," researcher and primatologist Tobias Deschner told ScienceAlert. The researchers from Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany were shocked to observe the near hour-long fight between two groups in February that year, and got even more shocked when the event repeated itself in December. Kukena joins a family of gorillas at the zoo that are part of an international conservation breeding programme for the western lowland gorilla, which is a critically endangered species.
Kukena, the seven-month-old western lowland gorilla is starting to find his feet as he learns to walk having been born at the zoo in September. (Photo : Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)īRISTOL, ENGLAND - MAY 04: A gorilla looks out from Bristol Zoo’s Gorilla Island on in Bristol, England.
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