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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 09:47 AM Sep 2014

Murder 'comes naturally' to chimpanzees

Source: BBC

18 September 2014 Last updated at 03:43 ET

Murder 'comes naturally' to chimpanzees

By Jonathan Webb
Science reporter, BBC News

A major study suggests that killing among chimpanzees results from normal competition, not human interference.

Apart from humans, chimpanzees are the only primates known to gang up on their neighbours with lethal results - but primatologists have long disagreed about the underlying reasons.

One proposal was that human activity, including destroying habitats and providing food, increased aggression.

But the new findings, published in Nature, suggest this is not the case.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29237276

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Murder 'comes naturally' to chimpanzees (Original Post) Eugene Sep 2014 OP
Our species has its own humanzees down at the Mexican border. valerief Sep 2014 #1
we are violent animals. that's how we evolved. mopinko Sep 2014 #2
But do they... DavidG_WI Sep 2014 #3
Yet one more thing that separates us from our very distant chimp primate cousins..... AverageJoe90 Sep 2014 #4

valerief

(53,235 posts)
1. Our species has its own humanzees down at the Mexican border.
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 11:03 AM
Sep 2014
Chimpanzees live in well-defined colonies, and groups of males patrol the borders of each colony's territory.


When the scientists compared the figures across chimpanzee research sites, they found that the level of human interference (e.g. whether the chimps had been fed, or their habitat restricted) had little effect on the number of killings.

Instead, it was basic characteristics of each community that made the biggest difference: the number of males within it, and the overall population density of the area.

mopinko

(69,806 posts)
2. we are violent animals. that's how we evolved.
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 11:37 AM
Sep 2014

violence has served us well over the millennia.
but it's time to evolve some more.

 

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)
4. Yet one more thing that separates us from our very distant chimp primate cousins.....
Tue Sep 23, 2014, 07:36 PM
Sep 2014

whereas in humans, killing doesn't just come naturally. It has to be learned, somehow. Thanks, Eugene.

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