{"id":316484,"date":"2026-04-10T17:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=316484"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:18:51","slug":"chimp-civil-war-breaks-out-between-200-great-apes-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/chimp-civil-war-breaks-out-between-200-great-apes-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimp ‘civil war’ breaks out between 200 great apes | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
Two adult male members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group at Kibale National Park in Uganda (Picture: Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One more war has broken out on the earth \u2013 but this time amongst monkeys. <\/p>\n

Scientists have observed the first-ever \u2018chimp civil war\u2019 on the earth\u2019s largest group of Ngogo chimpanzees.<\/p>\n

A pack of 200 great apes lived in harmony in Uganda\u2019s Kibale National Park for many years until their social bonds began to interrupt down in 2015.<\/p>\n

In June that 12 months, a few of the Ngogo\u00a0chimps chased away their mates, causing the community to separate into the Central and Western groups.<\/p>\n

Still, the rival groups had Romeo and Juliet-style relationships and shared land and resources, based on a study published today in Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But by 2018, the last of the friendships ended, and the apes began patrolling their homes and even carrying out raids into enemy territory. <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the most recent stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n

Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"The\t<\/div>
Chimpanzees are one among our closest relatives (Picture: Getty Images\/Gallo Images ROOTS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the following 4 years, Western males killed seven males and 17 infants from the Central group.<\/p>\n

An extra 14 adolescent chimps, who had shown no sign of illness, disappeared; their bodies were never recovered.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s lead creator, Aaron Sandel, a primatologist on the University of Texas, said more deadly attacks were seen after the study led to 2024. <\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing like this has ever been observed before,\u2019 Sandel said. \u2018[Ngogo] is the primary time that you could possibly say definitively that the civil war is definitely happening.\u2019<\/p>\n

Why the larger community broke down is unclear, but Sandel suspects that as their population swelled in numbers, the social order broke down. <\/p>\n

Competition over food and the death and resulting succession of alpha males could have also been an element, the paper says.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
Chimps have long been observed exhibiting human-like behaviours, like tool-making (Picture: Getty Images\/imageBROKER RF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chimpanzees are humankind\u2019s closest living ancestors, having been seen making tools, falling in love, grieving and becoming violent. <\/p>\n

These complex behaviours are passed from generation to generation and chimps even have \u2018culminative cultures\u2019, something only seen in people.<\/p>\n

Many animals form cultures, where they learn something from one other, but chimps have been seen innovating what they learn from others over time.<\/p>\n

One reason, experts consider, is that chimps mingle a lot, allowing for social learning. Chimp communities very rarely fracture, only doing so every 500 years. <\/p>\n

Sandel hopes the team\u2019s findings help people understand not only why we wage wars against each other but additionally how we will live in peace.<\/p>\n

\u2018What now we have to do is maintain interpersonal relationships,\u2019 he says. <\/p>\n

\u2018In our own every day lives with the folks that we interact with, if we will reunite \u2013 even within the face of conflict \u2013 then I feel that\u2019s a recipe for maintaining peace.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Cat and dog develop into friends after they\u2019re rescued from warzone by a drone<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Tourists ignore signs to remain back to grab selfies with Highland cows<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Incredible makeover for 250 dogs present in only one home<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\tComments<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n
\n
\n

News Updates<\/h4>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with every day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two adult male members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group at Kibale National Park in Uganda (Picture: Reuters) One more war has broken out on the earth \u2013 but this time amongst monkeys. Scientists have observed the first-ever \u2018chimp civil war\u2019 on the earth\u2019s largest group of Ngogo chimpanzees. A pack of 200 great apes lived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[30313,506,50458,14093,380,395,571,813],"class_list":["post-316484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-apes","tag-breaks","tag-chimp","tag-civil","tag-great","tag-news","tag-war","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316487,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316484\/revisions\/316487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}