Researchers from Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology observed lethal chimpanzee attacks on gorillas in the wild for the first time on record.
The attacks lasted 52 minutes and 79 minutes, respectively.
The first attack resulted in one dead infant gorilla and three injured chimpanzees.
Researchers will begin to investigate the cause of the violence, but theories suggest that competition for food or possibly climate change could explain the violent encounters.
The authors also suggest that the collapse of fruit availability observed in other tropical forests as a result of climate change may have caused the attacks .
CNN
livescience.com
