Chimpanzee societyĬhimpanzees are highly social animals and live in communities of between 10 and 180 individuals, according to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The Jane Goodall Institute UK noted that pet chimpanzees are destructive and too dangerous to be kept as part of the family, and that it is difficult to keep them stimulated and satisfied in a human environment. During attacks, chimps will target a person's face, hands, feet and genitals. Most of the time these are isolated and seemingly reckless attacks by individual chimps, but one chimpanzee in the 1990s killed seven children before he was killed by humans, National Geographic reported.Ĭaptive or pet chimpanzees attack people far more often than their wild kin, because they can lose their fear of people altogether. Chimps have also snatched and killed human babies. Chimpanzees typically direct their aggressive and sometimes predatory behavior toward children because the animals are more fearful of larger human adults, especially men, according to National Geographic. Chimpanzees may then take to stealing unprotected human food, such as crops, and in the process become more confident around humans.Ĭhimpanzees have attacked more than 20 people in the Western Region of Uganda over the past 20 years and killed at least three human infants since 2014, National Geographic reported in 2019. This usually happens when humans move into and destroy chimpanzee habitats, reducing their access to food. However, there have been recorded incidents of chimpanzees attacking and killing people.
Wild chimpanzees are usually fearful of humans and will keep their distance. (Image credit: Anup Shah via Getty Images)
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