The Gombe Chimpanzee War, also known as the Four-Year War, was a violent conflict between two communities of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in the Kigoma region of Tanzania between 1974 and 1978. The two groups were once unified in the Kasakela community. By 1974, researcher Jane Goodall noticed the community splintering. Over a span of eight months, a large party of chimpanzees separated themselves into the southern area of Kasakela and were renamed the Kahama community. The separatists consisted of six adult males, three adult females and their young. The Kasakela was left with eight adult males, twelve adult females and their young. During the four-year conflict, all males of the Kahama community were killed, effectively disbanding the community. The victorious Kasakela then expanded into further territory but were later repelled by two other communities of chimpanzees.
Background
In the years prior to the four-year war, Gombe Stream National Park was the Gombe Stream Research Centre, founded and directed by primate researcher Jane Goodall. The park is located in the lower region of the Kakombe Valley, and is known for its primate research opportunities. The site has steep slopes of open woodland rising above stream valleys lush with riverine forest. The chimpanzees roamed across these hills in territorial communities numbering from 1-40 members. The central valley was divided into three research areas, Kasakela in the north, and Kakombe and Mkenke in the south. Goodall followed the chimpanzees in their feeding, noting their aggressive territorial behaviour. Chimpanzee males would patrol their territories and occasionally raid the areas of other communities. Violence during these patrols usually occurred against isolated females and infants; the male patrols would mostly avoid each other or, if they met in equal numbers, limit themselves to noisy shows of force instead of seeking battle. Accordingly, Goodall did not foresee the upcoming full-scale conflict between the two communities in Gombe. The conflict began to emerge during the end of the tenure of Kasakela's long-term alpha, Mike. There were 14 adult males among the Kasakela community, and six of them increasingly spent time in the community's southern territory. Goodall and her colleagues began to refer to this section as the "southern sub-group", while the much more numerous remainder was termed the "northern sub-group". Over several months, the males of the two sub-groups reacted with increasing hostility toward each other. The northerners initially avoided the southerners' areas, whereas the southern males, led by the brothers Hugh and Charlie, made forays into northern territory. The brothers were described as "fearless" by Goodall, and the northern males generally avoided confronting them. Despite the growing tensions, some peaceful contacts between the sub-groups were maintained by two older northern males, Mike and Rodolf, with a southern male, Goliath. Two years after the division, the factions had developed into fully separate communities. The northern faction was now considered the Kasakela community, whereas the southern faction was termed the Kahama community. At this point, the Kahama had given up the northernmost border areas of their range to the Kasakela, but the separatists still controlled an area where the Kasakela had previously "roamed at will". The two communities' patrols would make shows of force when encountering each other, though there was no open fighting. This continued for about a year. By 1974, the Kahama were still led by Hugh and Charlie, with the other males being Godi, De, Goliath, and the young Sniff. The Kasakela males, led by the newly dominant Figan, included Satan, Sherry, Evered, Rodolf, Jomeo, Mike, and Humphrey.
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