Pandemic Robs Field Scientists of ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Moments
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
When Jane Goodall witnessed a chimpanzee troop split into two bands in 1974, she called the event a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. Now, a group of chimp researchers fears missing its own once-in-a-lifetime moment because of the coronavirus pandemic. Two years ago, they, too, witnessed a chimp group fission at Kibale National Park in Uganda. The consequences surprised them: Males of one group recently attacked the other and beat up the females. "I would have never predicted that males that have grown up together would be at each other's throats," says John Mitani, a primatologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. But he and his colleagues are likely to remain ignorant about how this power struggle plays out over the coming months or even the next year.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the research team has left the country. Mitani says such precautions make sense for both humans and chimps, who are likely vulnerable to COVID-19, too, according to an 11 April preprint on bioRxiv. But he and his colleagues may miss the rare events that structure chimpanzee society.
-- submitted from IRC
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