{"id":46969,"date":"2026-04-10T19:57:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=46969"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:57:04","slug":"ugandan-chimps-in-midst-of-first-recorded-ape-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=46969","title":{"rendered":"Ugandan chimps in midst of first recorded ape ‘civil war’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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They\u2019re going apes\u2013t.<\/p>\n

A scenic Ugandan jungle has become a bloody battlefield as two rival chimpanzee clans wage what could be the first recorded primate \u201ccivil war.\u201d The ongoing simian conflict was detailed in a study published April 9 in the journal Science.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cChimps from one group began attacking and killing those from the other group and that turned into an escalated period of lethal violence,\u201d study author Aaron Sandel, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Livescience.<\/a><\/p>\n

While the late great primatologist Jane Goodall had reported of a similar \u201cfissure\u201d 50 years ago, this marked the first time that such an intra-tribal schism had been researched and documented as it occurred, the Times reported.<\/a> Although chimp communities often compete with neighbors over land and resources.<\/p>\n

Two adult male members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group band together and chase away rivals. \u201cWhat followed was a series of lethal attacks by the western group on members of the central group,\u201d the researchers wrote. \u201cThese raids resulted in multiple killings of adult males and, beginning in 2021, expanded to frequent infanticide, averaging several deaths per year.\u201d via REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sandel and his team had been researching the Ngogo chimpanzee community\u00a0of Uganda\u2019s Kibale National Park, a large and well-known group of primates that has been extensively studied for 30 years.<\/p>\n