#WHITE CHIMPANZEE DRIVERS#

The females, with spears in hand, climb trees seeking out cavities where the nocturnal bushbabies spend the day sleeping. Their favourite prey are small, furry primates with large eyes called bushbabies. On the other hand, females are almost always hindered by their children, so they have to be a little more inventive. The males tend to rely primarily on their size and great strength to make kills. Interestingly, it's the females and not the males who hunt in this way. This is due to the startling discovery by Pruetz of a troop of chimps at Fongoli in Senegal, West Africa, that not only hunt animals, but do so with spears. It appears that humans may have hunted with weapons for far longer than we have previously thought. If the original discovery of hunting chimps by Dr Goodall was shocking enough, a more recent discovery by primatologist Jill Pruetz sent even greater shockwaves around the world and has had even greater implications for our evolution. Simon Frazer, 11th Lord Lovat: The Last Person Beheaded in Britain Weapon-Wielding Female Chimpanzees In this way, hunting prowess could feed through to reproductive success (for male chimpanzees at least). Males were more likely to share food with these females if they begged, and the females themselves were more likely to produce babies that survived.

Another study of a different group showed that hunts were more likely to occur when there were more sexually-receptive females around. In one group, an alpha male chimpanzee was known to share meat with his allies in the hunting party, presumably to reinforce his status and dominance, while keeping the shares away from his rivals. It also has social, political and sexual overtones. But meat from these cooperative kills often represents far more than just food. Generally, the dominant males who were most important in the hunt split most of the reward between themselves. Like the reasons for hunting in the first place, sharing the spoils is a complex business. Tai chimpanzees are even known to bite and break the prey’s bones in order to extract the nutritious marrow within.

You are probably wondering what happens to the hapless colobus monkey and other victims of chimpanzee hunting trips? Usually, the prey is torn apart by a chief male (while it is still alive and shrieking) as other excited chimpanzees gather around agitating and begging for a share. Sharing The Kill: Social, Political and Sexual Factors Tai chimpanzees start learning at around the age of 10, and it takes as long as an additional 20 years to become experts. The complex coordination of hunting roles takes time to learn.

#WHITE CHIMPANZEE DRIVERS#

Along with the drivers and blockers are hidden ‘ambushers’ and ‘captors’ who initiate the kill. Once the prey is targeted, it appears that some individual chimpanzees act as ‘drivers’ to move it in the desired direction, while others are visible ‘blockers’ cutting off potential escape routes.

Sometimes, the hunters actively target and chase prey, while in other cases they gather around en masse after happening on a victim by chance.ĭivision of labour during the hunt itself has been most studied among the Tai chimpanzees. Generally, the more individuals there are in a hunting party, the more successful it is likely to be with success rates in the biggest parties topping 90%. On average, 90% of the hunting parties are male chimpanzees, either full-grown or adolescents. The hunting party varies from a single chimpanzee to a few individuals to even more than 30 at a time.

White chimpanzee