The Gombe Chimpanzee War, also known as the Four-Year War, was a violent conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in the Kigoma region of Tanzania between 1974 and 1978. The two groups were once unified in the Kasakela community. By 1974, researcher Jane Goodall noticed the community splintering. Over a span of eight months, a large party of chimpanzees separated themselves into the southern area of Kasakela and were renamed the Kahama community. The separatists consisted of six adult males, three adult females and their young. The Kasakela was left with eight adult males, twelve adult females and their young.
During the four-year conflict, all males of the Kahama community were killed, effectively disbanding the community. The victorious Kasakela then expanded into further territory but were later repelled by two other communities of chimpanzees.
Source: Wikipedia.
Edit: I have to add the following, written at the bottom of the article.
“`In literature, the chimpanzee war became the topic of a philosophical poem “The First Civil War in Gombe 1974–1978” by Katarzyna Zechenter, a Polish poet, where the speaking persona concludes: “Still, I don’t understand, were these chimps so human, or are we such animals?”“`
And this as well:
“`In her 1990 memoir Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe, she wrote:“`
>For several years I struggled to come to terms with this new knowledge. Often when I woke in the night, horrific pictures sprang unbidden to my mind—Satan [one of the apes], cupping his hand below Sniff’s chin to drink the blood that welled from a great wound on his face; old Rodolf, usually so benign, standing upright to hurl a four-pound rock at Godi’s prostrate body; Jomeo tearing a strip of skin from Dé’s thigh; Figan, charging and hitting, again and again, the stricken, quivering body of Goliath, one of his childhood heroes.
Amitius on
None talks about the war crime committed in the Gombe Chimpanzee War any more.
Princeps_primus96 on
JUSTICE FOR GOLIATH!!!
the_king_of_snipers on
Bondo apes: let us introduce ourselves.
SAMU0L0 on
Ants: I’m a joke to you?
Dambo_Unchained on
Meanwhile we have ants waging world wars on a scale even unprecedented to humans
netap on
Don’t ask Curious George where he was between the years 1974 and 1978.
Let’s just say, he was finishing up on some… *Monkey business…*
Some might say, things went a little… *Bananas…*
SalvatoreQuattro on
General Bonzo deftly used flanking maneuvers to envelop General Bubbles 9th and 13th Legions. Total annihilation followed.
Emperor Harambe was left prostrate with grief and helpless rage: “Bubbles, give me back my legions!”
AncientYard3473 on
IMO, the oddest thing about human warfare, at least since the birth of agriculture, is the fact that it relies to a great extent on a social consensus that combatants *must*, when militarily necessary, utterly disregard their own safety.
I’ll betcha chimps don’t attack numerically superior foes or “hold the line” if it looks like their side’s losing.
If chimps want to step up and murder each other as efficiently as we do, they’s gonna have to learn how to talk.
10 Comments
Kahama clan: “Kasakela Weak!”
Kasakela clan: “Kahama Weaker”
Kahama clan: “Apes not kill apes!”
Kasakela clan: “You are no Ape”
> Clan Of The Apes, 2028
The Gombe Chimpanzee War, also known as the Four-Year War, was a violent conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in the Kigoma region of Tanzania between 1974 and 1978. The two groups were once unified in the Kasakela community. By 1974, researcher Jane Goodall noticed the community splintering. Over a span of eight months, a large party of chimpanzees separated themselves into the southern area of Kasakela and were renamed the Kahama community. The separatists consisted of six adult males, three adult females and their young. The Kasakela was left with eight adult males, twelve adult females and their young.
During the four-year conflict, all males of the Kahama community were killed, effectively disbanding the community. The victorious Kasakela then expanded into further territory but were later repelled by two other communities of chimpanzees.
Source: Wikipedia.
Edit: I have to add the following, written at the bottom of the article.
“`In literature, the chimpanzee war became the topic of a philosophical poem “The First Civil War in Gombe 1974–1978” by Katarzyna Zechenter, a Polish poet, where the speaking persona concludes: “Still, I don’t understand, were these chimps so human, or are we such animals?”“`
And this as well:
“`In her 1990 memoir Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe, she wrote:“`
>For several years I struggled to come to terms with this new knowledge. Often when I woke in the night, horrific pictures sprang unbidden to my mind—Satan [one of the apes], cupping his hand below Sniff’s chin to drink the blood that welled from a great wound on his face; old Rodolf, usually so benign, standing upright to hurl a four-pound rock at Godi’s prostrate body; Jomeo tearing a strip of skin from Dé’s thigh; Figan, charging and hitting, again and again, the stricken, quivering body of Goliath, one of his childhood heroes.
None talks about the war crime committed in the Gombe Chimpanzee War any more.
JUSTICE FOR GOLIATH!!!
Bondo apes: let us introduce ourselves.
Ants: I’m a joke to you?
Meanwhile we have ants waging world wars on a scale even unprecedented to humans
Don’t ask Curious George where he was between the years 1974 and 1978.
Let’s just say, he was finishing up on some… *Monkey business…*
Some might say, things went a little… *Bananas…*
General Bonzo deftly used flanking maneuvers to envelop General Bubbles 9th and 13th Legions. Total annihilation followed.
Emperor Harambe was left prostrate with grief and helpless rage: “Bubbles, give me back my legions!”
IMO, the oddest thing about human warfare, at least since the birth of agriculture, is the fact that it relies to a great extent on a social consensus that combatants *must*, when militarily necessary, utterly disregard their own safety.
I’ll betcha chimps don’t attack numerically superior foes or “hold the line” if it looks like their side’s losing.
If chimps want to step up and murder each other as efficiently as we do, they’s gonna have to learn how to talk.