The War For Dominance

 

The literal meaning of dominance is to have power and influence over others, in nature it refers to the hierarchy of species competing for survival. The concept of dominance is most prominent in social species such as humans and apes.

Often associated with dominant behavior, is aggressive behavior. Why is that exactly? Imagine you’re the ruler of a great kingdom, it’s prospering in your reign while you enjoy the benefits of being at the top of the ladder however, all of a sudden, you hear of invaders who seek YOUR crown, YOUR throne, YOUR kingdom…that changes things doesn’t it. Your position is immediately challenged, the lives of your people may as well be at stake and the enemy doesn’t seem particularly friendly.

There are mainly two possible outcomes:

1.     You defeat the opposition and win.

2.     Everything you built is destroyed, your people suffer and you most likely meet an agonizing, painful death.

Either way, there can only be ONE victor that emerges from the ashes.

This all comes into play in the natural world, there are intra-species (same species) as well as inter-species (different species) conflicts due to power struggles. between low-ranking and high-ranking individuals.

When there is a threat to position or status, there’s a sense of danger and an environment of hostility, the challenger attempts to climb the ladder of hierarchy while the challenged does everything they can to protect their status.  Each party becomes aggressive and has one goal, to vanquish the other.

(https://straussed.github.io/pages/agg_and_dom.pdf)

Goku vs Great Ape Vegeta

Now take all this information that I just crammed into your head and apply it to humans and apes. Two highly intelligent species competing against each other, an inter-species war for dominance.

Stay with me now, I understand how you’re feeling. I’ve lost my mind and am indulging in a fantastical scenario…but is it really that far-fetched?

To ease into understanding more about this concept, we need to go back a few million years. Before we diverged into two different species, humans and chimpanzees shared an ancestor about 6 to 9 million years ago. This implies there was some… inter-species mingling that resulted in us branching out. (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb4363)

Cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

 

But this also allows us to understand why we share quite a few behavioral patterns. Chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with us, so it makes sense that they use the same section of the brain to communicate as humans do and manipulate objects to use as tools, just like humans. They are also able to reflect on their thoughts in a way eerily similar to us, this is known as Metacognition. Chimpanzees are also stated to have a sense of morality that may not be exactly as complicated as ours, but they act in the best interests of their families for example defending members from predators. (https://www.animalwised.com/similarities-between-humans-and-chimpanzees-behavior-and-biology-3049.html)

A Chimpanzee contemplating a Human skull

 

All of this is put together in a somewhat realistic and quite entertaining manner in Matt Reeves’ Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).

Caesar serves as the protagonist of the film and his character arc beautifully represents the struggle of embracing his true nature, fighting for the freedom and survival of apes, regaining what he lost. What gives rise to the main events of the movie are the effects of “ALZ-112” that causes a rapid growth in intelligence in Caesar and many other apes.

Caesar and the other apes challenge Humans, the dominant species throughout the first half of the film. Caesar finds himself climbing the ranks among fellow apes by displaying aggressive behavior which lets him defeat Rocket. Now that he’s the dominant being amongst his own kind, he proceeds to start a rebellion against Humans. From his point of view, we see how important the sense of belonging is, he wants his kind to break the chains of oppression that humans have tied them with.

The humans find themselves vulnerable and seek to eliminate this new threat of extremely intelligent apes. From their perspective, we see these animals as dangerous and chaotic, sending entire law enforcement units to deal with the apes. They believe people are in danger as a sudden rise in intelligent and aggressive behavior occurs in apes.

What’s interesting about the conflict between humans and apes in RPA is, you can apply the Ruler and Kingdom scenario from the perspective of both species. Whether you believe those apes were too dangerous and had to be killed for the safety of people or Reject Humanity Return To Monke, you’ll see a species defending itself and securing it’s position in the natural hierarchy.

 Flash vs Grodd by David Finch

 Interestingly enough, DC Comics also delved in the idea of highly intelligent apes by introducing Gorilla Grodd, one of the Flash's most iconic enemies in May 1959. 

 After getting exposed to a radioactive meteorite, Grodd gains Super-Intelligence that grants him the ability to speak, use telekinesis and telepathy. He has a vision of enslaving humans and apes ruling the world as the dominant species on Earth. 

 

An aggressive human challenges a gorilla: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxowfoeNadNyjOCwJ0esp43TMSdyb5pJO8