Gombe has a new alpha male

In the primate world, rank is everything. Because humans are primates, it’s easy to see how power dynamics and relationships in groups play a massive role in our own societies.

Although rank is frequently tested in chimpanzee groups, it is very rare that an alpha is toppled.In the last two years, Ferdinand’s aggressive leadership left him few friends within the Kasekela community. In recent months, he has spent time in a subgroup with a few of the females who live in the northern valleys. At the same time, the majority of adults have formed a largerseparate group, further south. However strong a leader, an alpha cannot rule from afar, and from time to time Ferdinand would come back to assert his undoubted prowess and confirm dominance over all. While this worked for a brief period, younger males in the group have been maturing and gaining strength. A storm was brewing.

Ferdinand’s sister Fanni, has two sons: Fudge (19 years) and Fundi (16). These two were prominent in the southern subgroup together with a former alpha-male Sheldon (33 yrs), his brother Samson (19), a timid adult named Zeus (22), and an adolescent, Tom. With an absent alpha and the fire of young blood, the time for a revolution was upon the group.This October, the rift between Ferdinand and the rest came to a head when he made one of his periodic returns to surprise them. Instead of finding compliance and submission, he found that the males were already riled up because they heard him approaching. This once fearsome alpha became the victim of a group attack.

Fudge is a young adult male with unbroken and sharp canine teeth, and his attack left Ferdinand with severe wounds. Ferdinand was very badly hurt: small cuts on his face, his right arm and leg, a central slash-wound on his hindquarters which bled profusely, a deeper puncture-wound on his left rib-cage (on the flank), bad cuts on his left foot, and his left hand had three deep lacerations below the wrist. Although he had managed to run away quickly, once he was in the forest he moved very slowly, often just walking on his hind-legs because he was holding both wrists out in front of him to avoid putting pressure on them. In great pain he moved north and uphill, sleeping on the ground (chimpanzees usually sleep in trees), as he was unable to climb. Ferdinand, defeated and injured, could hear the group calling for days as they moved north and would break into a sprint to get further from his former loyal group, who were now a danger to him.

Over the next days, Ferdinand continued his slow progress to the north, learning to eatand climb again, licking his wounds. Though after the eighth day Ferdinand could not be tracked, field assistants believe he likely went to the valley for water and will continue to recover.All the other males, his rivals, have seen him in full defeat. Ferdinand will never appear invincible again. His confidence, the key asset in any dominance relations, can never be fully restored.

While Ferdinand healed, the group was very active with much displaying and assertions of dominance. Fudge was able to dominate each of the others one-on-one, and he received many submissive approaches with pant-grunts of respect. Although he had some injuries from Ferdinand and was limping slightly at first, Ferdinand’s teeth are worn and blunted with use so Fudge’s skin was hardly pierced and he recovered quickly. His young brother Fundi was completely unscathed. The mighty have fallen, and the mightier have climbed.Fudge is now the alpha-male of the Kasekela community at Gombe as of October 2016! While, we have seen that he can dominate other community members individually, the next question is whether he will be strong enough if the adults gang-up against him. This will truly define the limits of his power.