Chimpanzees in Uganda locked in eight-year 'civil war', say researchers

by neversaydie on 4/10/2026, 7:10:22 PM

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr71lkzv49po

Comments

by: OgsyedIE

The primatologist Richard Wrangam once advanced the theory that tribe vs. tribe conspecific homicides - what he called coalitionary killing - are an evolved trait that was selected for in primates by some kind of pro-homicide selection pressures in the ancestral environment (where homicide reliably grants an advantage to the expected relative gene frequency of the perpetrator's genes).I haven't kept up with biology for years and don't know what the current consensus on the topic is but it's interesting to consider if some environments naturally promote the unlucky inhabitants to harm each other.

4/10/2026, 8:35:25 PM

by: neom

Here is the paper: <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4944" rel="nofollow">https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4944</a> - it's interesting.I noticed there was a respiratory epidemic that killed 25 chimps naturally quickly, one would imagine that would have quite a societal destabilizing impact?

4/10/2026, 7:51:15 PM

by: rurban

What they don't tell here, but a german researcher told yesterday on radio, was that the initial conflict arose in the 90ies, when one large group of Ngogo chimpanzees raided a nearby group and killed all males. Thus they came later to that insanely large number of 200 members, which a decade later lead to this conflict with the two groups already seperated. Similar to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War</a> observed by Jane Godall.Also missing is the Killer Ape theory of the sixties which led to the research that chimpanzees have much higher lethal conflict numbers than humans.Also, this Ngogo group is highly researched, and many many films where made about them.

4/11/2026, 6:42:42 AM

by: delichon

I hope nobody decides to violate the prime directive and take sides in the chimp war.To the extent that they have good memory, they live in a world of finite resources, and their behavior was shaped by the forces of game theory as applied to tribes, this is more or less inevitable. You can read that as defeatism or just math. We can't overcome the force of game theory, but we can make it work for us by making our transactions increasingly transparent and repeatable, so that cooperation is more successful than defection.

4/10/2026, 7:50:31 PM

by: wisty

Anyone read Goliath's Curse? The author (Kemp) is extremely opposed to the more Pinker-ish idea that humans in their natural consition led lives that were nasty, short, and brutal; dismissing this sort of thing as overblown.Kemp had the very anarchist friendly theory that it's states (Goliaths) and / or the conditions that lead to them that lead to violence.His evidence is most convincing when it's looking at the paleolithic, as h sapiens made its way out of Africa ... but maybe this is not a natural state as they had not yet reached any population limits so migration was always an alternative to conflict?

4/11/2026, 2:13:54 AM

by: hn_acc1

So wait - after a respiratory virus, let's call it SARS-C, that killed > 10% (25/200 = 12.5%) of their population, they split into two major groups that are now at each other's throats, when before they had a generally-ok alliance / relationship?Where have I seen this before.. Think.. Think..

4/10/2026, 10:31:30 PM

by: loganc2342

If anyone is interested in going more in-depth on this, there's a four episode documentary series on Netflix called Chimp Empire [1]. I just saw it last week and it's fascinating stuff. You get to know the individual chimps in-depth (they all have names) and get to see conflicts in this "civil war" unfold. Plus I learned a lot about social and "political" dynamics among chimps.[1]: <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81311783" rel="nofollow">https://www.netflix.com/title/81311783</a>

4/10/2026, 7:49:31 PM

by: asterix99

The book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan is a revelation in how close human behaviour is to those of chimps.<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61662.Shadows_of_Forgotten_Ancestors" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61662.Shadows_of_Forgott...</a>

4/10/2026, 8:58:33 PM

by: frakrx

Funny how many people presume collective conflicts and violence are uniquely a human thing. Chimpanzees, lions, and wolves are some of the species where this kind of behavior is best known and documented.

4/11/2026, 8:22:35 AM

by: laughing_man

This doesn't surprise me. We've known for decades that chimpanzees groups make war on other chimpanzee groups. Eight years is a long time, though.

4/10/2026, 10:07:06 PM

by: grg0

Damn, they've been polarized by social media too? Zuckerberg's greed knows no limits.

4/10/2026, 9:05:01 PM

by: jonahbenton

Am reading Sapiens now, missed it the first time around. Incredible book. The point it makes isn't the killing among chimps being surprising. It is not relative non killing among humans- current day events notwithstanding. Contra the BBC, various human storytelling manifestations- religion/culture/etc- make large scale coordinated peaceful actions possible.

4/11/2026, 4:00:16 AM

by: elcapitan

So which side is fighting for our values?

4/10/2026, 8:12:31 PM

by: clutter55561

Say that we, primates, have evolved some sort of social structure that values and depends on ‘us’, and antagonises ‘others’.That would explain that sort of behaviour as well as our human shenanigans (country/religion/“race”/politics/football team/etc).Perhaps some groups are biased towards ‘us’ (i.e. more accepting), and other groups are biased towards ‘other’ (i.e. more hostile).The death of a few key individuals can absolutely remove all the commonality between two groups. Seems to have happened with those chimpanzees, and happens all the time in human groups.It is sad though that this is happening, on top of all the shit that is going on.

4/10/2026, 10:19:42 PM

by: mike_hearn

> If chimpanzees - one of the species closest to humans genetically - could do so without human constructs of religion, ethnicity and political beliefs, then "relational dynamics may play a larger causal role in human conflict than often assumed", they added.That's a weird thing to say. Studies of primitive tribes showed decades ago that they only seem to fight each other for a handful of reasons. Religion, ethnicity and political beliefs aren't among them. Fighting over resources, women and blood feuds are.Supposedly academic anthropology had difficulties accepting these findings, especially the Yamomamö studies by Chagnon where he documented them going to war to steal each other's women, as it contradicted the popular idea of the noble savage.

4/10/2026, 8:56:44 PM

by: ZeidJ

Any founders out there using AI to solve this? ;)

4/10/2026, 9:54:27 PM

by: zdc1

Just like kids on a playground; only more brutal. Thank you, ancient chimp brain.

4/11/2026, 5:17:29 AM

by: beloch

"The third factor was the deaths of 25 chimpanzees, including four adult males and 10 adult females, as a result of a respiratory epidemic, in 2017, a year before the final separation. One of the adult males who died was "among the last individuals to connect the groups", the research paper said."-------------There's a theory that humans (and likely chimps as well) have a cognitive upper limit to the number of stable relationships they can maintain (i.e. Dunbar's number[1]). Also, there is the idea that most people have nowhere near that many relationships, but some people are super connectors. They know everyone in the community and tie it together, even if the average member of the community doesn't know most other people in it.It almost sounds like, before the conflict, the tribe was at or a little beyond their "Dunbar's number"[1] and then several of their super-connectors died. Suddenly the community, despite its losses, was too big and not connected enough to remain stable. Minor conflicts arose, individuals started choosing sides, and there wasn't anyone with connections to both sides able to bridge the gap and calm things down.I'm not a sociologist/anthropologist/etc., so I'm probably woefully misinformed and spewing nonsense here. I'd love to hear what someone up to date on this stuff thinks actually happened._______________________[1]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number</a>

4/10/2026, 11:19:08 PM

by: semiinfinitely

we can send them some of that vim donation money

4/10/2026, 8:42:19 PM

by:

4/11/2026, 6:52:26 AM

by: eucryphia

Can we bet on this yet?

4/11/2026, 6:09:06 AM

by: dirasieb

do they wear red and blue?

4/11/2026, 7:57:44 AM

by: Reason077

> ”Chimpanzees are “very territorial", and have "hostile interactions with those from other groups"”So just like humans, then.

4/10/2026, 10:27:35 PM

by: vivzkestrel

"give a man a chimpanzee and he ll put it in a cage and feed bananas for 8 years and give a chimpanzee a man and he ll go to civil war for 8 years"

4/11/2026, 5:08:51 AM

by: nutjob2

> If chimpanzees - one of the species closest to humans geneticallyPeople seem to talk a lot about chimpanzees and their closeness to humans, and comparative behavior, but a lot less is said about the other closest species, the bonobo monkey.Their society is very peaceful and things like infanticide, a popular pastime in chimpanzee society, is absent among bonobos.The most notable trait of bonobos is that everyone has sex with every one else, constantly, (almost) regardless of relation, gender or age.You'd think humans could learn much from such a peaceful species, but most people don't even know they exist.

4/10/2026, 10:25:47 PM

by: cbdevidal

We really got Planet of the Apes before GTA VI

4/11/2026, 1:37:16 AM

by: fguerraz

I find it interesting that the BBC published this at a time they are already under heavy criticism for their coverage of the war in the Middle East (where they didn’t blink at Trump’s genocidal threats and published an article claiming that Iranians wanted to be nuked).Now we’re saying that war is just natural. It must be a coincidence.

4/11/2026, 7:35:17 AM

by: ingen0s

I wonder if there is a spill over effect to other species/ ecosystems

4/10/2026, 11:59:17 PM

by: Quarrelsome

I thought the general premise is that humans can't form social groups bigger than around ~200. Which scans for me personally, its a struggle to maintain so many relationships. At which point group dynamics break down and factions begin to form. We have mental tech to try to minimise these issues, like nationalism or identity politics. We back these through cultural expression like dress, language, writing, the printing press, radio or the internet today.Personally I feel like the effects of counter-culture are understated in humanity because I think it might drive a lot of human behaviour and its a natural outcome when a grouping grows beyond people's ability to maintain it. Counter-culture also offers a solid explanation for human insanity such as anti-vax which imho makes much more sense couched as:"I hate that guy and that guy is keen on getting vaccinated, so fuck vaccinations, they're awful".I would imagine one could find similar outcomes as this study of chimps, in human groupings too, albeit such experimentation would be unethical. Which is why I imagine it will eventually become a reality show someday: Lets play 400 friends or 200 enemies! Day 4: lets reduce the available food by 50% and see what happens... etc, etc.

4/11/2026, 1:19:18 AM

by: hmokiguess

That's absolutely bananas!

4/10/2026, 8:28:39 PM

by: globalnode

fascinating. so if humans are more like chimpanzees than not, then we are a group based animal that distrusts/fears other groups unless some strong leaders are able to bridge the gap? its an over simplification but then you have to ask, what defines a group? language? location? appearance? religion? wrt politicians, their job should be (amongst other things), bridging gaps between groups, instead of what we see going on in the world now.

4/10/2026, 11:02:17 PM

by: shevy-java

I always wondered when Planet of the Apes would begin. We can see it now:a) Chimpanzees going to war. b) Humans ending humans.Both is presently in the making, if one looks at the geopolitical scale and looks at damage caused by drones; a) is probably not yet full scale. Chimpanzees may be better diplomats than humans.

4/10/2026, 8:27:06 PM

by: codevark

They've been watching us and what we do to each other.

4/10/2026, 7:27:09 PM

by: dontcontactme

I don’t consider myself politically correct but this headline is outright racist

4/11/2026, 6:55:29 AM

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