Are Chimpanzees Cannibals?

 

For years, no one knew why female chimpanzees prefer to give birth alone.

The birth of chimpanzees in nature is rarely seen by researchers, mostly because pregnant women often take "maternity leave" from their family units, hiding themselves until their children were born. On December 2, 2014, researcher Hitonaru Nishie and Michio Nakamura witnessed birth in the Mahala Mountains in Tanzania. For unknown reasons, this mother does not take maternity leave; He drove in front of about 20 other knots. As Nishie and Nakamura watched, the baby "grabbed immediately after giving birth and consequently conquered by adult men," a sight that made them argued that cannibalism was the reason a chimpanzee mother often left her group before labor began.

Babies are not the only chimpanzees that are risky. In the planet earth segment narrated by David Attenborough, a chimpanzee family in Africa the accidental attack stage in the nearest enemy: other chimpanzees. When some attackers killed young chimpanzees from the opponent's family, they shared and ate the victim's body, took their food to the trees. By attacking other groups, Chimpanzees protect their local food supply - and by eating chimpanzees slaughtered, no meat to be thrown away.

Kanibalism in animals, of course, is different from cannibalism in humans. It's very common. Even herbivorous animals such as hippos are fading other nail hippines if the food is rare, and parents of many species eat their children if they are very hungry or anxious. Death or weak offspring is also an easy target for cannibalism - in the Rattles study headed by Lance Mexico, 68 percent of mothers eat all, or in part, from their children who are still born.

So if the chimpanzee does, from time to time, it is involved in cannibalism, does it make them cannibal? Not really. Just like other animals don't survive on cannibalism, other chimpanzees hardly have a main source of chimpanzee food. Most chimpanzees time are vegetarian, eat fruit, fruits, leaves, and grains, plus occasional eggs or insects. But especially vegetarians does not mean chimpanzees never eat meat. They are known to hunt and kill monkeys. (Although the chimpanzees and monkeys are both primates, there is sufficient difference - including the monkey tail, the features are lost in chimpanzees - that it is not identified as cannibalism.) The preferred method to eat this prey, or at least a teenager, is by. Cracking open the skull and eat the brain first. And consuming the brain is food practice for another time.