Documentarian James Reed on Witnessing Chimpanzee Patrols and Attacks

Right . You know , you come , you hear about these things happening , you know , it's a possibility we'll be there when it happens when it's filmed . So we ask exactly the same question .

Documentarian James Reed on Witnessing Chimpanzee Patrols and Attacks

So totally , we had exactly the same questions and we just didn't know and we were reassured by the scientists , you know , you'll , you'll be amazed like you see those things they will happen , but they will ignore you . And their only warning was that definitely don't get too close . You know , the , because the level of excitement , um , around the chimps during these encounters , you know , if there's ever a time when they could accidentally come very close to you or suddenly see you and get a bit of a fright , you know , that they wouldn't want , they wouldn't want to take that sort of a , a risk with us .

Documentarian James Reed on Witnessing Chimpanzee Patrols and Attacks

These hulking chimpanzees move through the forest in co ordination when you're there with that and you're very close to these violent encounters with the other chimps . Is there any concern there that you could get caught up in this sort of violent frenzy and maybe be in danger of being attacked or , you know , the there , there isn't actually . And that , that , I mean , the , the what ?

Documentarian James Reed on Witnessing Chimpanzee Patrols and Attacks

So they did , they did , we were warned , you know , keep a respectful distance from that . But amazingly , and there's a little , um , a little behind the scenes clip that we've sort of released on youtube now and you can see that during , during the , the biggest encounter that we filmed , um , the , the camera people were sort of like in it and , and around it and sort of at one stage sort of like accidentally between the two groups . They were sort of standing off and , you know , that the certain way , I mean , the chimps move so fast and they organize reorganize , separate or whatever .

Documentarian James Reed on Witnessing Chimpanzee Patrols and Attacks

They may not care about you but you really care about them and , and it's sad . Yeah , it's very sad during the filming or , or at least on the show , there's one instance of the chimpanzees killing , uh , another chimp . Was there more of that ?