Researchers have witnessedfor the first timea female orangutan kill another female person . Not only that , but the culprit of the attack was backed up by a male person , who seemed not only to enlist in the fight but also to block the dupe ’s exit . The conflict was only broken up when a second male come on the scene and escorted the injured female out . But unfortunately , even this treatment was n’t enough to economise her as she die two workweek later from her injury . The extraordinary event has been document in a report bring out inBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology .
The attack take place in the woodland of Borneo , where most of the world ’s remainingorangutansreside . While scarlet ape be comparatively solitary lives , the females do live in overlapping ranges that are patrol by one resident and other roaming males . aggressiveness is have intercourse to occur within the species , with males being tape raping females , and unrelated female fight when they come into contact . But attack leading to severe injuries , and eventually death , had never before been watch between females .
This picky sheath , which occurred in 2014 , call for two orangutans that have been subject to observations by research worker from the University of Zurich for the last 13 twelvemonth . The incident involved a young female call Kondor , who had just lost an baby , and a much older aper jazz as Sidony . The two female had fought before , when Kondor tried to come near Sidony ’s daughter , but that was a few years ago .
This time , Kondor was found with a male known as Ekko . The couple come across Sidony and her son , and Ekko started to sexually inspect the older female person . Ekko then reelect to Kondor and they started mating – that is until Sidony tried to move away from the pair brace , at which spot Kondor broke up the sex and violently attacked Sidony . It was then that Ekko unite in the fight , back up Kondor as she bit and hit the elder female person , and bar her route so she could n’t get by . With his large dogtooth , Ekko was interpret bring down serious damage to Sidony .
Male orangutans with their distinctive facial flanges are much bigger , and thus much strong , than the females . Sergey Uryadnikov / Shutterstock
But it did n’t stop with that , as a second male person anthropoid then entered the fray , known to the researchers as Guapo . He successfully managed to frighten away off Ekko , before turning his attention to Sidony , with whom he pair , even as Kondor uphold to try and chivvy the older female . Eventually , Guapo positioned himself in between the two struggle emulator , before escorting Sidony aside . Unfortunately though , this intervention essay to be too little too latterly , and Sidony died from her injuries two week by and by .
While primate are know to show lethal hostility towards each other , this is commonly limited to manful - male conflict , and only rarely slop over into distaff conflict . Pan troglodytes females have been roll in the hay , for lesson , to kill other females ’ infants . But this is the first time such deadly aggression has been seen among distaff orangutans , and even more interestingly , the enlisting of a male person to help their crusade .
range of a function in schoolbook : Female orangutans reckon after their offspring for extended menstruum of prison term , and are only ready to gestate about once every seven years . Sergey Uryadnikov / Shutterstock
