Chimpanzee males are often competing for position in social status this often depends on
support from other members from their group. High ranking males have sexual access to
females just like in humans. Males control females by physical violence and intimidation.
Chimpanzees also engage in tactical guerilla warfare and kill members of other
chimpanzee groups. Often they fight off attacks from other groups, males must remain in
groups to survive and have reproductive success that requires males to compete for mating
opportunities within the community. Competition for the scarce resources and ability to
reproduce leads to violence amongst the males. If the alpha male monopolized all
reproductive potential then naturally that pushes the non dominant males to continually
fight for dominance or to leave the group and find females elsewhere. The chimpanzee
solution is to allow all males some unequal reproductive possibility. This is not some thing
that was thoroughly covered in our text but your comments on social structures and there
complexity sparked my interest in this subject. I feel that our study of primitive behaviors
give us insight into why we act the way we do.