Kasakela chimpanzee community
Later, she observed David Greybeard and another chimpanzee named Goliath stripping leaves off twigs to create termite fishing tools.
[10][11] According to historian Ian Morris, this "Four Year War" represented the first time scientists had observed chimpanzees "deliberately seek out, attack and leave for dead" chimps from another community, and it has been described as "the first record of lasting 'warfare' among [non-human] primates.
Fifi, raised by her confident mother Flo, grew to be a popular female in Gombe, not only because of her high-ranking family but also from her close ties with the adult males.
She inherited her mother's superior status[16] and because her older brothers Faben and Figan were among the top big males, she grew up with enormous confidence.
[38] Five-year-old Fifi was the focal point of the documentary People of the Forest: The Chimps of Gombe, in which her mother and siblings also featured, attempting to gain access to her infant brother Flint.
[18] The attacks by Fifi and Fanni mirror those of previous perpetrators Passion and Pom in the 1970s,[41] which proved that cannibalism, though deemed rare, does occur among both male and female chimpanzees.
[50] The documentary Chimpanzee Family Fortunes ends with a scene of the orphaned young female Flirt finding solace after several lonely months by getting groomed by her older brother Freud.
[52] He fathered at least one infant, the female Cocoa to Candy, born in 2004[53][54][55] Freud's approach to maintaining his alpha status was different from his smaller predecessor Wilkie and his larger successor Frodo.
[40] His large size and aggressive nature allowed him to attain high status in the group, while his brother Freud was alpha male.
The attacks by Fifi and Fanni mirror those of previous perpetrators Passion and Pom in the 1970s,[41] which proved that cannibalism, although deemed rare, does occur among both male and female chimpanzees.
The loss of her mother in 2004 greatly reduced Fanni's dominance and she shifted her range to the southern part of the Kasekela territory, further away from the other community females.
[24][59] By the last two years of his reign Ferdinand's aggressiveness had made him so unpopular with other group males that he spent most of his time apart from them, returning to assert his dominance every so often.
[91] The documentary Chimpanzee Family Fortunes ends with Flirt finding solace after months of loneliness by being groomed by eldest brother Freud.
[24] Fudge had joined a coalition that included his brother Fundi, his father Sheldon, his uncle Sampson and his cousin Zeus in opposition to Ferdinand.
[37] After recovering from his injuries, Goblin maintained a high-ranking status within the community by forming alliances with the alpha males, especially Freud and Frodo.
[18] The attacks by Fifi and Fanni mirror those of previous perpetrators Passion and Pom in the 1970s,[41] which proved that cannibalism, though deemed rare, does occur among both male and female chimpanzees.
[101] In the BBC television program Chimpanzee Diary 1998 Galahad was depicted being supportive of his mother Gremlin, staying near by even though he could not intervene during her attack by other community females trying to take her newborn twins.
[20] Besides Tapit, Tita, Tanga, Titan and Tarzan, she had two offspring who died in infancy, including her first born Pibi (1978)[20] and a baby of unknown sex in 1988.
[115] Faben (Figan's older brother with a paralyzed arm), Evered (defeated by Figan in his bid for alpha status who became Ferdinand's father) and Sherry (lower-ranking male who became Frodo's father) are examples of males who successfully devoted their energy to breeding success despite not attaining alpha status.
[115] However, a very secure alpha male, such as Frodo, can use his status to increase his access to females in estrus, especially during the period when she is at peak fertility.
[119] According to researchers at the University of Minnesota's Jane Goodall Institute Center for Primate Studies, Wilkie attained his position primarily by becoming popular by obsessively grooming other males.
[111][119] Frodo, at 51.2 kg (113 lb), was one of the largest males ever seen in the group, relied primarily on brute force to attain and maintain alpha status.
[111][119] After Frodo became ill in 2002, he was brutally beaten by a coalition of males led by Sheldon and spent two years travelling away from the rest of the community.
Studies in Gombe have discovered that the rank of a mother directly correlates to infant survival, fast maturing of daughters and faster production of offspring.
Infanticide among chimpanzees, although rarely filmed, is a common occurrence, with observations at Gombe Stream National Park revealing that such gruesome acts are done by females within their own community.
Of the infanticidal attacks observed at Gombe where the victim's infant is killed and even consumed, almost all of them involved a coalition of high-ranking mother and daughter against a lower-ranking female, whose lower rank limited the support she could get from her own kin.
She inherited her mother's superior status[16] and because her older brothers Faben and Figan were among the top big males, she grew up with enormous confidence.
This was also possible because of her ability to fearlessly navigate a male-dominant society,[73] helped in part from the fact that her adult sons Freud and Frodo grew to become the alpha males in the community.
Having produced the most offspring out of any female during her time, Fifi was regarded as Gombe's most fertile female[128] and her ability to have reproduced as frequently as she did, and have enough resources and social standing to ensure the survival of seven of her nine children validates the studies of how the social rank of a chimpanzee mother directly correlates to infant survival, fast maturing of daughters and faster production of offspring.
Such attacks were observed of Fifi and her adult daughter, Fanni, aggressively harassing lower-ranking Kasekela female, Gremlin, on three different occasions, with the goal of killing her newborn infants[41] Since the loss of her mother Fifi in 2004, Fanni, now the oldest surviving female of the once mighty 'F' family, shifted her home range, probably in an attempt to distance herself from the other, bigger matrilines, and this is despite having high-ranking male relatives in the community, including her son Fudge who has been the top male since 2016[129] and her high-ranking brothers Faustino and Ferdinand (Fudge's predecessor).
