Most hunting takes place in groups and is a social activity for the chimps. Some researchers have found a positive correlation between the number of chimps in a given group and the success rate of a hunt. After a hunt, meat sharing behaviors have been found to be common in various groups of chimps.
Researcher Jane Goodall even found that chimpanzees are prone to go on hunting "binges" in which they kill large numbers of monkeys and other prey. Possible reasons behind such "binges" are unclear. In one group of chimpanzees, they were observed to have killed 10% of the population of colobus monkeys in their area. This number is theoretically less than the number in actuality, as this is simply the calculation of observed kills.
As far as the whole "eating other monkeys" thing goes, the chimpanzee's choice to feast on their friends over other items available to them may be due to the relative amount of nutrition they receive from different food sources. While fruit, nuts, and insects may be less dangerous to acquire, other monkeys make for better sources of protein.
Moral of the story is... never trust a chimpanzee by its playful and friendly demeanor!
Sources:
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html
I had no idea that chimpanzees ate other monkeys! That is so surprising, since we normally say that humans and chimpanzees are similar in many ways. We are not similar in this way, that's for sure! It is interesting that the chimpanzees would not find another form of protein to avoid eating their own kind.
ReplyDeletethese pictures are adorable!! also i agree with jordan, i never knew that they ate other monkeys. it's weird to think of them eating their "own kind" and being okay with it. we as humans would never behave in this way because it would be wrong and unethical behavior. are monkeys their "meat of choice" or do they prefer something else instead and just eat monkeys when other resources are not available?
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