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| Cannibalism |
| During the four-year period from 1974 to 1978, ten infants were born into the study community at Gombe - only one survived. Five of them were killed and eaten by Passion and Pom, and it is likely that the other three met the same fate. The researchers wanted to find ways to prevent further attacks, yet once Passion and Pom gave birth themselves, the cannibalism stopped. |
| Jane's observation: | | In 1971 one of our researchers, David Bygott, observed a brutal attack on a female of a neighboring community. She was set upon by a group of "our" males who hit her and stamped on her, one after the other. During the course of this assault, which lasted more than five minutes, her infant of about eighteen months was seized, killed, and partially eaten. The mother managed to escape but she was bleeding heavily and was so badly wounded that she probably died later. When David come back and described what he had seen we were stunned. We discussed it far into the night, eventually deciding that it must have been a one-time occurence, a bizarre aberration. After all, the ringleader was the alpha male Humphrey, whom most of us considered something of a psychopath at the best of times, with a history of vicious attacks on females of his own community. Humphrey, we felt, must have encouraged the others to behave in such an uncharacteristic way. Sadly, the "noble ape" was as mythical as the "noble savage…" Source: Reason For Hope, pp. 111-112. |
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