For decades, researchers have been following the world’s largest known community of chimpanzees. Then it started to fall apart.
Aaron Sandel
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Aaron Sandel
In the mid-1970s, primatologist Jane Goodall witnessed something that changed her opinion of chimpanzees forever: A four-year conflict amongst the chimpanzees she was studying in Tanzania. Chimpanzees that knew each other started killing each other. It was essentially the primate equivalent of a civil war. And now, it’s happening again: Fighting within the largest known community of chimpanzees. NPR science correspondent Nate Rott helps us break down what’s going on and what it could tell us about how human communities can fall apart.
Read all of Nate’s story here.
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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.