Fifi’s second-oldest chimpanzee child at Gombe was Frodo. He became one of the best-known—and most controversial—members of the Kasakela chimpanzee community studied by Goodall’s team.
Frodo was born on 30 June 1976, and his older brother was Freud. From a young age, Frodo was unusually large and forceful. He learned to throw stones at human observers, became a successful red colobus monkey hunter and often used his size to intimidate other chimpanzees.
Frodo eventually challenged Freud for dominance and became alpha male in 1997. His aggressive behaviour also brought him into conflict with people: he attacked visiting cartoonist Gary Larson in 1988 and injured Goodall on several occasions. In 2002, Frodo killed a human child who had been carried into his territory, prompting authorities to consider killing him. He died in 2013. The name is especially easy to mix up with Goliath, Faben and Flint, other notable chimpanzees from Gombe’s records.