Why Chimpanzees Wage War - David Watts

Chimpanzees are some of man's closest relatives, but National Geographic grantee and Yale primatologist David Watts says that we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that they approach the world in the same way we do. Their aggressive behaviors and motivations come from a very different place than ours do. He says that aggression is a daily event in the lives of chimps, inside social groups. But he points out that the displays of aggression that tend to get the most attention are those between separate social groups. Watts explains why chimps do war, and it's not to protect their interests abroad. He also offers hope for our species: while chimpanzee violence is not something they can escape, "humans can. Antagonistic groups have made peace with each other, and even formed alliances against others, which is beyond the capacity of chimpanzees."