Chimpanzees possess a large number of behavioral and cultural traits among nonhuman species. The “disturbance hypothesis” predicts that human impact depletes resources and disrupts social learning processes necessary for behavioral and cultural transmission. We used a dataset of 144 chimpanzee communities, with information on 31 behaviors, to show that chimpanzees inhabiting areas with high human impact have a mean probability of occurrence reduced by 88%, across all behaviors, compared to low-impact areas. This behavioral diversity loss was evident irrespective of the grouping or categorization of behaviors. Therefore, human impact may not only be associated with the loss of populations and genetic diversity, but also affects how animals behave. Our results support the view that “culturally significant units” should be integrated into wildlife conservation.

Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natural resources. However, significant threats from anthropogenic activities and decline of wildlife populations persist, while conservation efforts in most PAs are still minimal. We assessed the impact level of the most common threats to wildlife within PAs in tropical Africa and the relationship of conservation activities with threat impact level. We collated data on 98 PAs with tropical forest cover from 15 countries across West, Central and East Africa. For this, we assembled information about local threats as well as conservation activities from published and unpublished literature, and questionnaires sent to long-term field workers. We constructed general linear models to test the significance of specific conservation activities in relation to the threat impact level. Subsistence and commercial hunting were identified as the most common direct threats to wildlife and found to be most prevalent in West and Central Africa. Agriculture and logging represented the most common indirect threats, and were most prevalent in West Africa. We found that the long-term presence of conservation activities (such as law enforcement, research and tourism) was associated with lower threat impact levels. Our results highlight deficiencies in the management effectiveness of several PAs across tropical Africa, and conclude that PA management should invest more into conservation activities with long-term duration.

Reproductive parameters and sexual behavior of free‐ranging Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus) were studied over a 13‐year period at Jodhpur, India in a population that breeds throughout the year. Long‐term monitoring of individually identified females living in one‐male‐multi‐female troops revealed a mean cycle length of 24.1 days (n = 113), a mean gestation of 200.3 days (n = 31), menarche at 29.0 months (n = 10), first conception at 35.0 months (n = 12), and a mean birth interval of 16.7 months (n = 114). The loss of unweaned infants accelerated the resumption of menstruation, receptivity, and attractivity; shortened the period between estrus and next conception; and reduced the median birth interval by 20.5%, thus supporting the sexual selection hypothesis of male infanticide. The decline of fertility with age (as measured by the rates of conception per estrus period), a regular postreproductive survival for up to 9 years (which can account for about 25% of a female's life span) and indications for the existence of a “true menopause” support the view that a postreproductive period in langurs is the result of natural selection. There is very limited evidence for situation‐dependent receptivity, because only 7.5% of all estrous days (n = 1,037) fell outside of the mid‐cycle period with at the same time strongly reduced proceptivity and attractivity. Moreover, postconception estrus behavior showed a stereotypical pattern during 31 pregnancies and did not reflect a situation‐dependent response to the immigration of new and potentially infanticidal males. It is likely that females competed for sperm of the harem holder, because the probability of conception increased significantly with an increase in the number of copulations, and when the number of females copulating on the same day decreased. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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The study of the archaeological remains of fossil hominins must rely on reconstructions to elucidate the behaviour that may have resulted in particular stone tools and their accumulation. Comparatively, stone tool use among living primates has illuminated behaviours that are also amenable to archaeological examination, permitting direct observations of the behaviour leading to artefacts and their assemblages to be incorporated. Here, we describe newly discovered stone tool-use behaviour and stone accumulation sites in wild chimpanzees reminiscent of human cairns. In addition to data from 17 mid- to long-term chimpanzee research sites, we sampled a further 34 Pan troglodytes communities. We found four populations in West Africa where chimpanzees habitually bang and throw rocks against trees, or toss them into tree cavities, resulting in conspicuous stone accumulations at these sites. This represents the first record of repeated observations of individual chimpanzees exhibiting stone tool use for a purpose other than extractive foraging at what appear to be targeted trees. The ritualized behavioural display and collection of artefacts at particular locations observed in chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing may have implications for the inferences that can be drawn from archaeological stone assemblages and the origins of ritual sites.