It has recently come to attention that, chimpanzees of the wild use the darkness of the night to perform various mischievous deeds, in this case raiding nearby farms for crops. A camera trap caught these tree dwellers whilst performing night time raids for food.
Researchers conclude that these activities are a direct consequence of human beings invading their habitats, thus encouraging these animals to perform these acts of theft.
To understand the psyche of these animals, researchers set up cameras in Kibale National park, Uganda. The researchers wrote in their papers that the chimps surrounded the farms and the tea estates and performed raids.
The study was performed for about 20 days witnessing about fourteen individual raids. Each raid was performed by about 8 groups of chimpanzees with the group even containing mothers carrying the infants. Raids would happen even during the day, but for longer periods of time during the dark hours. The researchers anticipated that these acts were performed due to threat to their habitat which might be more than threat to their lives due to predators.
The researchers say that, the fact that the animals are willing to go to such great levels of effort shows that they are under a lot of pressure by the environment and also the human beings around them supposedly trying to steal their habitat. The only solution suggested is the conservation of their habitats.
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