Chimpanzee kills baby, angry mob attacks

The chimpanzee attack occurred on Friday in the village of Bossou in the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve. Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, right on the border with Liberia. A woman was working on a cassava plantation when a chimpanzee unexpectedly appeared next to her, snatched the baby sitting on her back and fled into the jungle.

The woman's alarmed neighbors, mostly young men, vented their anger on the institute building. They set it on fire, destroyed all research documentation, computers, equipment of students from Japan and several drones used for observing animals.

Eyewitnesses say the crowd was reacting to the news that the mutilated body of an infant had been found, Reuters news agency reports.

– In the new building that we are currently building, they broke down the door, tore open 85 bags of cement with machetes, took money, destroyed camera traps – the director of the institute, Paul Lamah, enumerated in an interview with local media on Saturday. He added that chimpanzees have already attacked people in the reserve six times this year.

Scientists have warned for years that human activity that impedes chimpanzees’ movement through their territories could not only cause conflicts between rival communities of these great apes, but also lead to aggressive behavior toward humans. And the chimpanzees are now in serious danger, as iron ore mining will soon begin in the pristine forests of Guinea.

Local ecologist Alidjiou Sylla told Reuters that dwindling food supplies in the reserve were forcing the animals to leave the protected area more often, making attacks more likely.

There are about 140 chimpanzees living on the slopes of the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, and only seven remain in the Bossou reserve, although ten years ago their population reached 20 individuals. Japanese scientists have been observing their behavior and maintaining the institute since 1976.