Study: Chimpanzees don't kill due to human interference

Study: Chimpanzees don't kill due to human interference
(Image credit: Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

A new study in Nature states that chimpanzees have warrior-like instincts on their own, and aren't more likely to get aggressive when humans are around.

Researchers looked at data from more than 50 years in 18 different chimpanzee communities, as well as data from four groups of bonobos, the kinder cousin of the chimpanzee. The data showed that killings between chimps are not more likely to happen when humans are somehow involved in their life, and bonobos do not kill each other, period.

Chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor from about seven million years ago, which is why researchers are so fascinated by whether or not there is a link between chimp and human behavior. Michael Wilson, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Minnesota, says that although people often argue that combat between humans is caused by factors like the development of weapons and the start of agriculture, chimp behavior seems to suggest that warfare has "a long evolutionary history."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.