Super Harbaugh Rivalry Bros: The Gombe Chimpanzee War

What do you think about civil wars, Jim?

I’d say we’re probably bound for one soon if things keep on the way they have been thus far.

Since I’ve watched all the film that’s ever been created in the history of football, and with the league still not letting us run workouts over webcam 20 hours a day, I’m on to reading everything I can about civil war stuff. Not just here in the US, either.

Oh Johnny. I know all about civil wars. The Boxer Rebellion, General Franco, Soviets in Afghanistan… you name it, I know it. But what do you know about chimpanzee civil war, brother of mine?

THE GOMBE CHIMPANZEE WAR

Combatant 1: A group of chimpanzees

Combatant 2: Another group of chimpanzees

Location of Conflict: Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania

Reason for Conflict: Somebody didn’t like their new leader.

What happened? In 1974, warfare erupted between groups of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, where famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall completed much of her groundbreaking work. According to Goodall’s research notes, the discovery that other species engaged in violent conflict was an earth-shattering revelation for many wildlife experts. Dr. Goodall has noted that some female chimps will kill, and sometimes even eat, the young of other female chimps in order to maintain their power and dominance in the social hierarchy of a group… which is pretty crazy in and of itself. But as her research showed, there was much yet to be discovered about chimpanzee behavior and its subsequent relation to the development of human behaviors and interactions.

When Jane Goodall began her research in Gombe in 1960, she found that the chimps, particularly the male ones, were all living and interacting quite harmoniously, but by the end of the decade, there were some notable splits showing – males in the Kasakela tribe began to form two separate groups, with one controlling the northern territory of their traditional region and the other controlling the southern. The Kasakela retained many of the males, but a small upstart faction known as the Kahama took a few others. What caused this split in the chimp group is still unclear – from research done both by Dr. Goodall and by other scientists, it appears as though this is an extremely rare event to take place, with the possibility that some tribes can last for hundreds of years through successive generations, based on genetic sampling. To this day, the Gombe War is the only known instance of a full-scale chimpanzee war. Some possibilities include the Kahama males not liking the power grab of Hugh to become the new alpha, or perhaps a lack of fertile female chimps to mate with in the tribe.

In Goodall’s work, she broke with what had been traditional practise up to about 1960 by giving every chimp their own individual and distinct name, which she felt fit well with the behaviors and personality of each animal. As such, the combatants for the Gombe Chimpanzee War were as follows:

Kasakela: Figan (alpha chimp), Humphrey, Mike, Satan, Sherry, Evered, Rodolf, Jomeo

Kahama: Hugh & Charlie (co-alpha chimps), Godi, De, Goliath, Willy Wally, Sniff (adolescent)

All these names rule, quite honestly. It sets the stage nicely for the bloodbath that was to follow.

The Aftermath: Over the next four years, the Kasakela systemically went out and killed every single male of the Kahama group, destroying them forever. The process took a long time due to the need for the Kasakela war party to sneak up on each Kahama rival individually, catching him by surprise and overwhelming him. Chimp attacks are vicious, using teeth, hands, and brute strength, grabbing, ripping and biting at anything they can get their hands on. The Kasakela took out Godi first, following shortly after with successful attacks on De, and then later on Hugh, one of the Kahama co-alphas. Later, the Kasakela killed Goliath, a former alpha male, despite the fact he had shown kindness to them in previous interactions. With only three males left – and with Willy Wally crippled from polio – the Kahama’s days were numbered. When Charlie was killed, Willy Wally ran away and was never seen again. With the young Sniff as the last chimp standing, the Kasakela victory was all but complete. He went into hiding for over a year, but upon re-emergence, was finally killed, ending the war with the Kasakela claiming complete victory.

The Kasakela took over the Kahama territory and took control of the three remaining females left, but their victory was short-lived; thanks to border skirmishes with the neighboring Kalande tribe, the Kasakela were forced to give up most of their territorial gains shortly after the war’s end in 1978. The Kasakela tribe lives on to this day; the current alpha male is Fudge, who is Figan’s grand-nephew. He has had control of the tribe since 2016, when he asserted his dominance over his uncle Ferdinand.

Good news is I’ve got an inside line to recruiting these guys. So long as we can get the helmets and gloves on ’em, that is. They could be the greatest special teamers of all time if we do away with the fair catch rule, really…

Jimmy, I know there was that time in our teens when I almost managed to steal your eyeballs, but all I’m saying is that if you’re not careful, those apes may well make you pay for it this time. Charlton Heston had a point, brother of mine.

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Information for this article taken from here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Banner image by The Maestro.