National Geographic: The New Chimpanzees Page #5

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Only the most experienced hunters play

this role.

They have to race ahead then climb

almost a hundred feet above the canopy

into the crowns of the tallest trees

to ambush their prey.

And when they are

successful it's incredible

because you can have suddenly

all the forest is screaming.

All the chimps know

there have been a capture.

The chimps have made a capture call,

everybody knows 'meat'

that meat is so rare,

it's so difficult to acquire

and it's only because, uh,

adult males have worked together

that there is meat,

so it's something very special

for all group members

and there is a huge excitement

with that.

It's really a, a team work and it

works only if the team wants to work

and the team doesn't see each other,

it's too dense in this forest.

So, they are always anticipating

that the other one will come

and often they don't see if

they really did their job

and it works only

if everybody does their job.

This kind of work, on the long run,

only if meat is shared

according to the work

these hunters have been doing

You see, alpha male is not

the best hunter or is not hunting

and he doesn't get meat.

You have now an alpha male

who's fresh in this position,

that is young and he's not

always hunting

and he can really be there displaying

for minutes and not get

a tiny piece nothing at all.

This division of the spoils based

on right rather than might

reveals a different division of power.

Females, who are allies of the hunters

also gain access to the carcass

bringing their infants closer to the

meat than the blustering alpha male.

If this complex division of labor

and food seems almost human,

so does the chimp's love of play.

An infant chimp may seem secure

within the bosom of his group,

but this is not always true.

A male has stolen a baby chimp

from its frantic mother,

who follows in desperate pursuit.

In the Mahale Mountains,

south of Gombe,

researchers have recorded

this terrible event not once

but seven times and

are at a loss to explain it.

The alpha male is now in possession

of the screaming infant.

He actually beats back the mother

with her own baby.

Both mother and baby are members

of this male's group,

and the infant was presumably sired

by one of the group's members.

Males have been known to

kill babies sired by outsiders,

but this kidnapper could very well be

the baby's father.

The infant is killed by

a savage bite to the face.

Group members share in the macabre

feast just as if it were a monkey.

Infanticide and cannibalism

dark reflections of our common legacy.

But the mirror of our primal past

reflects light amidst the dark.

Aggressive impulses may be rooted

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