• duncesplayed@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    That is not what happened at all. Foudouko (the murdered chimp) used to be the leader of the group, but there was a power struggle in 2007. Foudouko’s right-hand man was injured on a hunting trip, and so, in terms of physical/military might, Foudouko was more or less on his own. There was a (successful) coup from a younger male who took advantage of the timing, and Foudouko was ex-communicated

    I think Foudouko gave up on trying to regain the alpha position, but he kept trying to rejoin the group (always unsuccessfully) because it was the only way he could find a mate. In 2017, finally the group had had enough of him constantly trying to elbow his way back into the group, and just decided to murder and eat him.

    It has nothing to do with resource-hoarding and is a very unique situation. In fact it’s the only documented case ever of a chimp group murdering someone from their own (former) group.