ArticlePrimates; journal of primatology2020
Intra-community infanticide in wild, eastern chimpanzees: a 24-year review.
Article in Primates; journal of primatology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Revisiting Infanticide in Non-Human Primates Reveals a Similar Likelihood of Male and Female Perpetrators.American journal of primatology · 2026Pooled it
- A lethal incident during an intergroup encounter in bonobos.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Great Ape Childhoods: Social and Spatial Pathways to Independence in Bonobo and Chimpanzee Infants.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Differences in expression of male aggression between wild bonobos and chimpanzees.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- Puberty initiates a unique stage of social learning and development prior to adulthood: Insights from studies of adolescence in wild chimpanzees.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2022Article
- Dead-infant carrying by chimpanzee mothers in the Budongo Forest.Primates; journal of primatology · 2022Article
- First observation of a chimpanzee with albinism in the wild: Social interactions and subsequent infanticide.American journal of primatology · 2022Article
- The Primates 2021 Social Impact Award.Primates; journal of primatology · 2022Article
- Intercommunity interactions and killings in central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) from Loango National Park, Gabon.Primates; journal of primatology · 2021Article
- A machine learning approach to infant distress calls and maternal behaviour of wild chimpanzees.Animal cognition · 2021Article
- Article
- Maternal cannibalism in two populations of wild chimpanzees.Primates; journal of primatology · 2020Article
- Responses to death and dying: primates and other mammals.Primates; journal of primatology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Infanticide is well documented in chimpanzees and various hypotheses have been proposed to explain this behavior. However, since infanticide by chimpanzees is relatively rare, it has thus far not been possible to thoroughly test these hypotheses. Here we present an analysis of the largest dataset of infanticides from a single community of chimpanzees, a full record of all intra-community infanticides and failed attempts at infanticide over a 24-year period for the Sonso community of chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda. We use these data to test four hypotheses for this behavior: the sexual selection hypothesis, male mating competition, resource competition, and meat acquisition. Our dataset consisted of 33 attacks on 30 victims, 11 of which were 'definite' infanticides, four of which 'almost certain', and nine were 'suspected', while nine were 'attempted' infanticides. The majority of attacks where the perpetrators were known (23) had only male attackers and victims were disproportionately young (two-thirds of victims with known ages were under 1 week old). Our data best support the sexual selection hypothesis for infanticide. Cannibalism was infrequent and partial, suggesting meat acquisition was a by-product of infanticide, and there was no evidence to suggest that infanticide was part of a male strategy to eliminate future competitors. Infanticide by females was rare, but we suggest sexual selection, operating through intra-sexual competition, may also be responsible for infanticide by females.
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