We've all seen the movies, but did you know about the real deal? Meet the Kaskela Ape Community

Hey guys! It's ur boi tris back after a couple weeks ghosting my post schedule. And this week I will be diving into one of the most interesting research projects i've looked into in the last couple months that I've been waiting to make an article on. This is of course as you know from the title, the Planet of the Apes like Kasakela chimpanzee community that lives in the Gombe National Park, Tanzani.

I've decided to take a new approach to writing and content creating and will be trying to "streamline" my content in a way to make it easier for me to handle. I find I overload myself a lot by trying to do to many things at once, and with the condition Steem has been in lately I think it's best I split my focus on to other things. This means I will likely not be posting at dtube at all anymore and focusing on my written work and possibly youtube channel.

But without further ado, let's get down to the deets with these chimps.

The Amazing Work of Goodall

So when most people think super smart ape, they think planet of the apes, or gorillas who know sign language like Koko. But what if I was to show you a real-life society of apes who use tools, plan wars and basically have their own ancestry.com? Because that's pretty much the Kasakela, and by sharing a little bit about their family tree, unique habits and 4 years war I think you'll see why this community is the most likely to become our ape overlords.

Extensively studied in the 1970s by Jane Goodall, the world renown primatologist. If you haven't heard of her before, she is a researcher who spent years of her life living with and studying chimps to an extent we had never thought possible before. The Kasakela are a habituated community of wild eastern chimpanzess located in Gombe Park, near Lake Tanganyika.

Unique Habits

The research done with these chimps would, by it's end, be considered some of the most important and insightful researcher into the social behaviors and habits of chimpanzees at large. Many discoveries came from this group such as observing the first instance of tool use by primates, when they were seen to use sticks to scavenge termite mounds and later being observed to teach and therefore pass this ability on to it's young. They were also able to disprove the notion that chimpanzees were solely vegetarian, being observed to partake in meat eating when far from necessary. These observations made people look at these chimpanzees very differently, as they were being seen to be far more deliberate in their actions then primatologists once believed.

Families

And so as these chimpanzees are passing on their tool use to their young and so forth, Dr.Goodall had a genius idea, to take all of the chimpanzees and trace their lineage, to see if they could make a family tree for the apes. By taking extensive lengths to study, identify, name and place each of their chimps into specific family groups. By using different letters to distinguish different matrial lineages Dr. Goodall and her team were able to create the first chimp family tree detail the mother, father, siblings and offspring of almost every member of the comunity over the course of 30+ years.

What is really so interesting here, and what had caught my eye intially for so long was all the different entries about each of the family members in the Kasakela community. It literally reads like some kind of weird game of thrones/ planet earth crossover series, just listen to a few of these crazy ass stories:

Faben

Faben (ca. 1947–1975)[8] was Flo's oldest son and oldest known offspring.[12] He was a powerful male, but lost the use of one arm in a polio epidemic that ravaged the community in 1966.[12] Despite his disability, he learned to create spectacular bipedal charging displays, which allowed him to regain a high rank within the community.[12] His support was critical to Humphrey's ascension to alpha male rank in 1969, and then his brother Figan's ascension to alpha male in 1972.[13][14] Faben also participated in the conflicts with the rival Kahama community (which was formed by former Kasakela members) that occurred between 1973 and 1975, and was a leader in the killing of several Kahama males, including former Kasekala alpha male Goliath.[12][15] Faben himself died in 1975, possibly as a result of the conflicts with the Kahama community.[12] Following Faben's death, Figan had difficulty maintaining his alpha male position for several months.[13] Faben is believed to have fathered several Kasakela infants.[16]

Flo

Flo
Flo (ca. 1919–1972)[8] was the matriarch of the F-family, so named because she and all her matrilineal descendents were given names beginning with the letter "F". In 1962, Flo was one of the first chimpanzees to approach Goodall's camp, along with her infant daughter Fifi. Video of Flo approaching Goodall and allowing Fifi to reach out to touch Goodall's forehead, letting Goodall know she had been accepted, is shown in the IMAX film Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees.[9] Later she brought her sons Figan and Faben, who would later become prominent members of the community to the camp, and when she came into estrus in 1963 she attracted the community's males to Goodall's camp.[9][10] Five of Flo's descendants have become alpha males of the community: son Figan, grandsons Freud, Frodo and Ferdinand, and great-grandson Fudge.

Flo was a high-ranking female who had at least five known offspring, three sons (Faben, Figan and Flint) and two daughters (Fifi and Flame). Flo was 28 years old when she gave birth to Faben. Most female chimps have their first infant when 12–14 years of age, so it is possible that Flo had at least one infant prior to Faben and that infant either died or, if it was a female, would have transferred to one of the other communities prior to Goodall's arrival to Gombe. When Flo died in 1972, she was given an obituary in Britain's Sunday Times.[11]

Titan

Titan (born August 1994) is Patti's third oldest son, fathered by Frodo.[32] Titan displays aggressive behaviour resembling his father Frodo's violent tendencies. For example, as a youngster, he would throw rocks at researchers.[60] Like his father, he is large, and as of 2013 was the largest male in the community.[60] As of 2012, researchers believed that he may be ready to challenge Ferdinand for alpha status, as he spent a lot of time near Ferdinand and sometimes helped Ferdinand maintain control.[60] However, over the following year Titan slipped in rank.[60] Researchers suspect that he may be afraid to challenge for the alpha spot, and also that his reluctance to groom other chimps may inhibit him from forming the alliances needed to attain alpha status.[60] As of early 2014, he had occasionally been able to ally himself with Ferdinand's older brother Faustino in attempts to challenge Ferdinand, but he has not been able to maintain that alliance reliably, and at times Faustino would also join with Ferdinand to attack Titan.[61] Titan fathered a daughter Baseke by Bahati in 2010.[38][39]

And that is just 3, out of about 40 of the entire collection which have been detailed on the wikipage, I'm sure I didn't even remeber some of the best ones, so I really urge you to take a look and read through them they each really are quite interesting and paint this huge struggle of the F family alpha males trying to maintain control.

War for the Planet of the Apes

Everything wasn't great for the Kasakela, but it was standard... but that all changed with... the FOUR YEAR WAR. Yes, this is literally what the historians call it. According to researchers it is the only deliberate hunting, killing and essentially genocide of one chimpanzee community by another. Over the course of 4 years the Kasakela would go on routine hunts consisting of many of the larger males, for the sole purpose of finding and killing the members of the neighboring Kanama Community. After an intensive four years of savage group beatings of the Kanama by the Kasakela, the neighboring community was wiped out, and the Kasakela community were the only ones remaining. They have since grown in numbers and have taken the vacant space for themselves. And now maybe you see why these guys are the "real-deal". All they're missing is for Caesar himself to pop up one day and start leading the revolution out of gombe park and into the streets.

That's it guys!! Hope you enjoyes reading, remember to upvote and follow for more! This topic is one I found super interesting so I do urge you gus again to go check out the wikipage and look through some of the family profiles you won't regret it!

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