According to a new study, Chimpanzees may have sense of differentiating between right and wrong just like concepts of morality in humans. It was found in the study that two groups of the apes looked more at film clips of a baby chimp being killed by its own kind compared to ones showing other acts of violence.

The research has been published in the journal Human Nature. According to the researchers led by Claudia Rudolf von Rohr, from the University of Zurich, "We found that chimpanzees discriminated between a video clip depicting severe aggression against an infant and video clips depicting other forms of social aggression or neutral behaviour. Specifically, they showed significantly longer looking times in the infanticide condition than in the control conditions".

They concluded that the animals considered the attack on infant chimp outside the limits of normal behaviour. According to the scientists, the research may help reveal evolution of human morality and social norms. The study was conducted on 17 chimps kept at two Swiss zoos in Gossau and Basel.

The chimpanzees were observed by researchers when they were watching film clips of chimpanzees that they didn't know. The chimpanzees in the clips were either involved in neutral activities such as walking or cracking nuts, or showing violent behaviour.

The zoo animals saw the clips of chimpanzees killing one of their own infants for four times longer compared to any of the other films, together with those showing a colobus monkey being killed by chimps, and aggressive behaviour between chimpanzee adults.