Contextualizing Violence

This chapter establishes the context for the Four Year War, describing human impact and discussing other kinds of bloodletting at the same time. It highlights the chimpanzees’ “war” with baboons, a surge in hunting of red colobus monkeys, internal cannibalism of infants, and severe assaults on females. Gombe researchers explained that the Four Year War was largely due to habitat loss around the National Park. The chapter describes chimpanzee-on-chimpanzee attacks wherein 66 percent were due to competition for bananas and were mostly carried out by adult males through protracted interactions involving charging, grappling, biting, slapping, and slamming. Jane Goodall sought to diminish violence among chimpanzees, including baboons, by modifying how bananas were provided.