Heartbreaking.
In the very first episode of David Attenborough’s new documentary series Dynasties, audiences were introduced to a chimpanzee named David as we learned all about his remarkable story to maintain dominance and leadership over his troop.
David was a strong and determined leader who ruled over his troop of 32 chimps in Senegal, West Africa. In a truly remarkable feat, he led this group for three years – most alpha males there don’t hold on to the power for much longer than that.
As we saw in the documentary, a ruthless rival named Luther was eager to snatch his crown, and he even tried to kill him for it.
After surviving a very-close brush with death, David returned to regain control of his tribe.
Sadly, it has since been revealed that David has actually passed away.
Clip via BBC Earth
According to The Daily Telegraph, seven months after cameras stopped rolling on David for the BBC series, the alpha male chimp was found beaten to death.
“He died from wounds inflicted from what I’m sure are these young males,” Jill Pruetz, director of the groundbreaking Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project, said in reference to David’s rivals on the show, Jumkin and Luther.
“There aren’t other animals that would have inflicted wounds like that – especially when you have multiple individuals attacking a single individual. He was very aggressive, that’s why he held onto his dominant status for so long. He was pretty clever but our best interpretation of what happened is that these adult males jumped him.”
Dynasties continues next Sunday (18 November) on BBC One.
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