8. Intra-community killing — the case of Zesta
Into forest at 7.00 (up at 5.30). Meet Zimba (estr 2) & Mukwano on F. sur, also Gonza. This is the
tree they were not feeding on previously. I’m with Zephyr who’s on his 3rd follows day. He’s gone
off to look for ‘his’ chimp i.e. his focal so I’m sitting on a log watching these 3. There’s a redtail
monkey group also here. Tinka arrives. I move to F. mucusotree in fruit on the logging track.
DuaneJamboKigere in estr. 4. Copulation with cop call by Kigere. Nambi, Musa, Muga,
Kadogo. We are on the road, people are passing. Chimps are noisy today, lots of calling between
3 gps of which we’ve seen 2 (15 March 1997, 7.32 a.m.).Inter-community killing between adults
During the ‘war’ at Gombe, the males from the larger Kasakela community brutally
attacked members of the smaller Kahama community, killing all the males and a female
(Goodall 1986). At Mahale, all the males of the smaller K community of chimpanzees
were apparently killed by males from the larger M community (Nishida et al. 1985).
Two cases of lethal inter-community killing have been described for the Kanyawara
community in Kibale Forest (Muller 2002).
Boesch and Boesch-Achermann (2000) have described a number of different
strategies for such attacks. Manson and Wrangham (1991) have argued that one of the
main factors underlying them is the numerical superiority of the attackers, proposing the
‘imbalance of power’ hypothesis. One-on-one attacks across borders are rare, in most
cases a number of males have been on patrol, have encountered a lone individual from
a neighbouring community, and have launched an attack. The attacks consist of
prolonged biting while the victim is held down, and they continue after the victim is
incapacitated and unable to run away. The victim is either killed during the onslaught or
dies later of his or her injuries.
Zesta
We have had one case of intra-communitykilling by adult males of one of their fellows
in our Sonso community. This is not unique but it is very rare. Nishida (1996) described