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[Carrie McLaren <temporary181 AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Female-Led Wild Chimp Infanticides Studied
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/science/article_21281098.shtml
May 16, 2007

A Scottish-led study of Ugandan wild chimpanzees has found repeated 
instances of a poorly understood behavior: female-led infanticide.

Infanticide is known to occur in many primate species and is 
generally thought of as a male trait. But the new study involving 
Sonso chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest found instances of three 
female-led infanticidal attacks.

The researchers observed one infanticide and found strong 
circumstantial evidence for two others. The evidence suggested that 
in two of the cases, the killings were perpetrated by groups of 
resident females against "stranger" females from outside the resident 
group.

The researchers said their observations indicate such female-led 
infanticides are neither the result of isolated, pathological 
behaviors nor the by-product of male aggression but appear to 
represent part of the female behavior repertoire in chimpanzees.

The findings -- reported by Simon Townsend, Katie Slocombe and 
colleagues at the University of St. Andrews and the Budongo Forest 
Project in Uganda -- appear in the journal Current Biology.