It turns out that chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting friendships

November 11, 20225:01 AM ET

Laurel Wamsley at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., November 7, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)
LAUREL WAMSLEY



Chimpanzees and gorillas sometimes eat from the same trees at the same time. Here, a group of chimps is seen in February at the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images

Perhaps the real law of the jungle is that it's good to have friends — especially those who know where to find the the free food.

Case in point: It turns out chimpanzees and gorillas can be pals, evidently with advantages for all. That finding is from a new paper in the journal iScience that analyzes social interactions between the primate species over two decades at the Nouabalé-Ndoki Park in the Republic of Congo.

Over that 20-year period, researchers saw gorillas follow the sound of chimps to a canopy full of ripe figs, and then co-feed at the same tree. They witnessed young individuals of both species playing and wrestling with each other – interactions that can foster their development. And when bands of the two species encountered each other, researchers saw gorillas and chimps scan the others and then approach the ones they knew.

They even saw chimpanzees beating their chests – a behavior associated with gorillas.

Researchers had theorized that associations between the species could perhaps be to avoid predators such as leopards or snakes. But the apes' behavior didn't show that to be a major factor in their interactions.

More:
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/11/1135887754/chimpanzees-gorillas-relationships-nouabale-ndoki-park