I really enjoyed this series; it was well filmed and really made the viewer feel like they were "right there" with the chimps. I particularly enjoyed the way the interaction with their environment was captured as well as the personalities of all the individual chimps. There are a few things I felt were missing, such as the life and hierarchy of the females in the groups, as well as what the various forms of communication were conveying. There were also a few inaccuracies. For example, the narrative stated that the "westerners" were originally part of the central group, but split apart to form their own. This is known as "fission and fusion" behavior and is common; often the groups will reunite and another subgroup will break off or "fission". It is rare that the fission group will be treated as lethal enemies by the fusion group and vice versa as claimed, although territorial disputes will erupt. Also the narrative states that chimps never communicate with anyone outside their group, and that, too, is untrue. Chimps actually form allies and bonds with other groups as well as forming enmities. Despite these shortfalls, however, the series is definitely worth watching, not only for understanding chimpanzees and their complex social structure and behavior but also for seeing the (obvious) parallels with our own.
Review of Chimp Empire
