Chimpanzees are braving the dangers of night to raid human settlements for food.

Chimps, which normally forage for food in the day time, were caught on camera raiding farmers' fields inside Kibale National Park in Uganda.

The footage captured by researchers from the Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Uganda Wildlife Authority show how chimps adapt to human pressure on their habitat.

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According to the researchers, it's the first record of "frequent and risky" nocturnal raids in search for food. Chimps are daytime animals. They normally don't roam around at night to avoid leopards, their main enemy.

Over a period of 20 days, the chimps were caught 14 times raiding farmland. The camera traps were placed on borders of the park so they wouldn't miss a single chimp raid.

"[It's] surrounded on the outside by smallholder farms, forest fragments and tea estates," researchers in their study.

The study suggest human invasion of the chimps habitats may trigger the animals' frequent rummaging for food.

In each trip to the farmland, there were about eight chimps, including females with clinging infants.

They stayed longer at night compared to the day time in search for food. The footage also captured signs of chimp vigilance and anxiety like frequently checking of their surroundings for leopards.

Habitat loss is a greater threat than natural predators to the chimpanzees, according to Dr. Catherine Hobaiter, an expert in chimp behavior from the University of St Andrews.

"It forces chimps to explore new food sources, like human crops," she added.

Dr. Hobaiter said chimps might face danger from local people defending their croplands. This human vigilance could cause injuries to both humans and chimps.

TagsUganda Wildlife Authority, chimpanzees, habitat loss, chimps