In 1991, when Bwindi was established as a national park for the gorillas, authorities controversially evicted the Indigenous people from the forest, to nearby districts.

The forest is home to approximately 500 mountain gorillas, nearly half of the world’s gorilla population. If it wasn’t for that, they would be spearing them and eating them.” That’s also why I think these gorillas have survived. “They would then think that they’re not going to be successful, so what they did was go back home,” he said. If the Batwa met a gorilla in the forest on the way to a hunt, they would feel like they met a bad omen, Wilber Tumwesigye, one of the Bwindi ranger guides told Al Jazeera. The region is home to the western lowland gorilla, which is a critically endangered species.Ĭhimpanzees are an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.Bwindi, Uganda – According to legend, the Batwa pygmy forest dwellers of southwestern Uganda have lived in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for more than 300 years, sharing their home with the majority of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas, but also being wary of them. It is home to elephants, buffalo and a number of other species. Loango National Park is a sprawling protected area on Gabon’s coast in western sub-Saharan Africa. “It could be that sharing of food resources by chimpanzees, gorillas and forest elephants in the Loango National Park result in increased competition and sometimes even in lethal interactions between the two great ape species,” Deschner said. The authors suggested that pooling food with other species could have caused the flare-ups. Our colleagues from Congo even witnessed playful interactions between the two great ape species,” Pika said.Īround 45 chimps were being observed for the study, which intended to analyze their relationships, use of tools, communication and hunting skills, among other characteristics. “We have regularly observed both species interacting peacefully in foraging trees. Mysterious chimpanzee behavior may be evidence of 'sacred' rituals The two encounters they recorded, which lasted 52 and 79 minutes, saw the chimpanzees form coalitions and launch attacks on the gorillas.Ī chimpanzee receives a Christmas treat at Taronga Zoo on Decemin Sydney, Australia. The group, from Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, published the findings on Monday in the journal Nature. “But then, we heard chest beats, a display characteristic for gorillas, and realized that the chimpanzees had encountered a group of five gorillas,” she added, referencing the first attack the team saw, in 2019. Southern, the study’s lead author, in a press release. “At first, we only noticed screams of chimpanzees and thought we were observing a typical encounter between individuals of neighboring chimpanzee communities,” said Lara M. Chimpanzees’ lethal attacks on gorillas in the wild have been observed for the first time, a team of researchers has said.Įxperts observing dozens of chimps at Loango National Park in Gabon had expected them to be relaxed around gorillas.īut while the two species were usually playful, the researchers were surprised to witness occasional vicious attacks.

Silverback gorillas