Episode 31: The Four Year War
Origin Stories
Meredith Johnson
4.8 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2018
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A scientist solves the mystery of the only known chimpanzee civil war...thus far.
In 1960, Louis Leakey sent Jane Goodall to start her study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her first decade of research led her to think that chimpanzees were like nicer versions of humans. But in the early 1970s, the Gombe chimp community split in two and deadly violence erupted. The cause has remained a mystery until now. A new study by Leakey Foundation grantee Joseph Feldblum reveals similarities between the ways chimpanzee and human societies break down.
Thanks:
Thanks to Joseph Feldblum for sharing his work. Visit his website to learn more about his research.
Thanks to Jane Goodall for everything. Visit her website to learn more about her work and the Gombe chimpanzees.
The archival audio used in this episode is from The Leakey Foundation Archive. The narration in the first part of our story was recorded in 1970 for a Leakey Foundation filmstrip. The lecture audio is from a 1978 Leakey Foundation lecture entitled "Cannibalism and Warfare in Chimpanzee Societies."
The Leakey Foundation
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!
Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!
Credits
Editor: Julia Barton
Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson
Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari
Sound Design: Katie McMurran
Theme Music: Henry Nagle
Additional Music:
Sponsors
This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast. |
| 0:12.8 | I'm Meredith Johnson, and we're back for another season of stories about how we became human. |
| 0:21.6 | You should know that this episode contains some descriptions of violence |
| 0:24.6 | that might not be for everyone. |
| 0:31.6 | Jane Goodall arrived at Gombe National Park in Tanzania on July 14, 1960, |
| 0:38.3 | to begin the first, long-term, detailed study of chimpanzee behavior in the wild. |
| 0:44.3 | It had been her lifelong dream to do such a study. |
| 0:49.3 | Naring the shore, I felt a special excitement for ever since childhood I had dreamed of studying animals in the wild. |
| 0:59.0 | A game ranger helped me to pitch camp near the shore. |
| 1:03.0 | The following morning I set out alone to locate the elusive animals. |
| 1:09.0 | You might be able to picture it in your mind. |
| 1:12.0 | The 26-year-old Jane Goodall in her shorts, khaki shirt, and converse sneakers, her blonde |
| 1:18.2 | hair pulled back in a ponytail, sitting on a steep hillside, watching the chimpanzees through |
| 1:25.0 | her binoculars. |
| 1:26.4 | From here, I could at least observe the chimpanzees from afar. |
| 1:30.4 | I had a trunk carried up with a blanket, |
| 1:32.9 | some tins of beans, coffee and a kettle. |
| 1:35.8 | Sometimes I slept up here when the chimps slept in nearby trees. |
| 1:40.3 | I started filling in the details of their behaviour and way of life. |
| 1:45.0 | Her observations, even from a distance, were new to science. |
| 1:50.0 | She was learning something new every day. |
| 1:52.0 | From my mountain perch I observed how chimpanzees go to bed. |
... |
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