Random Ways Chimpanzees Are Just as Brutal as Humans (12 items)

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  (#7) They Perform Mob-Style Hits

  Chimpanzees love a good group-on-individual attack. In fact, mob-style hits are one way chimps remove powerful leaders they no longer like. In 2014, the Washington Post ran a story that described the assassination of a chimp leader named Pimu. Apparently, when his underlings could no longer take his leadership, four of them banded together and ambushed him, beating Pimu to death with their hands and feet. Although scientists don’t know if his body was then cemented and thrown into the Hudson River, one could imagine that Tony Soprano would be proud. 
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  (#1) They Sometimes Cannibalize Their Murder Victims

  In 2017, a group of chimps in Senegal organized a hit on their much-maligned alpha male, Foudouko. A tyrannical leader, Foudouko had been ostracized by his group after he maintained contact with his right-man chimp, Mamadou, despite Mamadou's drop in social standing. When it came time to take Foudouko out, both males and females from the group aggressively beat him – throwing rocks at him, beating him with sticks, and jumping on him for a long time after his pulse ceased. Then, after he was dead, some began cannibalizing his body, which is both incredibly gruesome and fairly uncommon in the realm of chimpanzee hits.
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  (#12) They Continue Beating A Body Long Past Its Death

  According to primatologist Michael Wilson from the University of Minnesota, chimps likely don't understand "death" in the same terms that humans do. He says that, in fact, "[it] seems unlikely that they know about using pulse or breath to make sure something’s dead." As a result, chimps will continue desecrating a body long past its expiration. This means that a group of chimps will continue stomping on, throwing rocks at, or beating a body with sticks despite its (to human eyes) clear lifelessness.
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  (#3) They Commit Infanticide And Engage In Organized Baby Murder

  To ensure their DNA is passed on to future generations, male chimps will kill babies sired by other males. To combat this, female chimps are known to mate with several chimps at once to purposely conceal the paternity of her child. 

  A 2007 study published in ScienceDaily found that female chimpanzees also partake in chilling baby murders, cannibalizing the infants after they kill them. The scientists found that “resident” females would organize murder parties, attacking and killing the young of females who were new, or “strangers,” to the group. The scientists involved in the research reported hearing the shrill screams and wails of the “strange” females in the night as their young were killed and eaten before them. Although they don’t yet have definitive evidence, scientists believe that these female-coordinated attacks might be the result of changing sex ratios within the group, which increases mating, resource, and reproduction competition.
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  (#8) They’re Natural Born Killers

  For a long time, a debate about the natural violence of chimpanzees raged in the scientific community. Are chimps naturally violent? Or do they become that way after disruptive contact with humans? On one side of this debate, scientists believe that murder, warfare, cannibalism, and organized beatings come naturally to chimpanzees. On the other side, scientists believe that human destruction of the environment and chimpanzee resources has increased a chimp's need to compete for ever-dwindling supplies. In light of this disagreement, scientist Michael Wilson performed an 18-year study on multiple chimp communities, observing their murder rates, human contact, and intergroup violence. His finding? It all comes naturally. In fact, “‘[this] pattern of evidence suggests that chimpanzees just do this [killing] naturally,’ says Wilson.”
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  (#11) They Organize Raiding Parties

  Young male chimpanzees have been described as acting like “frat boys” who happen to wage war every 10 to 14 days. For the most part, they like to hang out, play fight, and make a lot of noise. However, it isn’t all fun, games, and beer bongs for young male chimps. They also form highly organized raiding parties and regularly launch attacks on neighboring groups. These “raiding parties” patrol their own territory, enter enemy territory in search of solitary individuals that they can kill, and attack and kill groups of mother and baby chimpanzees that they might happen to stumble upon. According to primatologists, they do so as a means of ensuring basic survival of the fittest. In competitions for limited resources and control of vital territory, these young chimps are the cavalry.

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