Major study reveals murder 'comes naturally' to both humans and chimpanzees

Scientists confirmed that the level of human interference had little effect on the number of killings among chimps.

17:35 18 September 2014

A major study, which was co-written by more than 30 scientists, found that murder comes naturally to chimpanzees and that the level of human interference had little effect on the number of killings. 

 

The study, which was published in Nature, said that Chimpanzees live in well-defined colonies. Groups of male patrol the borders of each colony’s territory. Violent conflicts seem to arise if a patrol encounters a chimp from a neighbouring community. 

 

Prof John Mitani, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Michigan and one of the study's authors, agrees. "There is considerable variation in rates of killing by chimpanzees living in different populations, so even in chimpanzees killing is not inevitable," he said.

 

"And, of course, we are humans and not chimpanzees. We have the ability to shape and alter our behaviour in ways that they can't."

 

Prof Frans de Waal, an animal behaviour expert from Emory University in the US, said the new study was an important contribution.

 

"I'm very glad they're publishing this," he told BBC News. It answers a "long, long history of resistance", Prof de Waal explained, to the idea of natural, inter-community violence in chimpanzees.

 

"It has always been contentious - we've had meetings where people screamed at each other.

 

"What this paper does is, instead of getting into the ideology and the history of these arguments... they have just taken the data and analysed it, and said: Where do the chips fall?"