Chimp Police

Summary: You wouldn’t think that chimpanzees actually care about their crime rate, but it seems that they do. (And here we thought chimpanzees were dim-witted and barely able to find food. I guess maybe they’re smarter than we thought. How can anything with opposable thumbs be incapable of being awesome?) When there is a new conflict, a new research shows that the higher ranking females and males will try to intervene. What the research is showing is that the alphas will jump in to resolve fights whether it benefits them or not. The do it so the rest of the crowd won’t get upset and/or involved. Critique: Personally, I don’t think about chimpanzees that often. I mean, when I watch Tarzan I obviously do . . . even though he hangs around with gorillas and not chimpanzees. I think since they’re the closest thing to a human that isn’t a human, it’s cool in general. Still, I wouldn’t go looking them up on purpose. For me, personally, I like to think of them like wolves – there’s the alpha and his mate and then there’s all the others that follow. Also, at the very bottom, there’s always the runt – the one that everyone picks on. This is the same poor creature that the ones above it would trip to save their own lives from the chasing predator. The runt is also the most likely to be the hungriest – because while they are still considered family, they aren’t as “important” as the alphas. Impact: No impact – just another cool thing I stumbled upon. They do apparently have some form of rankings, which I was already pretty certain about before reading the article. I think that any living organism is going to – unconsciously or otherwise – put the elite on top and the ‘worthless’ at the bottom “for the good of society”. Because, somehow, along the way of our human evolution, we decided that the people who should be on top are the rich/powerful/well-connected. The same people who would gladly let the people who aren’t them starve. Chimpanzees aren’t this smart – but everything living understands that the individual who will protect the group for the benefit of all should reign. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120307185016.htm