Maternal effects on the development of vocal communication in wild chimpanzees

Bründl, Aisha C.; Girard‐Buttoz, Cédric; Samuni, Liran; Grampp, Mathilde; Löhrich, Therese; Tkaczynski, Patrick J.; Wittig, Roman M.; Crockford, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105152

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…Tomasello et al 1997a ; Schneider et al 2012 ) and now increasingly also in wild settings (e.g. Laporte and Zuberbühler 2011 ; Fröhlich et al 2017 ; Bründl et al 2022 ). Nonetheless, a direct comparison of immatures’ communication living in these different research settings (‘wild-captive contrasts’) is still lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

Fröhlich,

van Noordwijk,

Mitra Setia

et al. 2024

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In many group-living species, individuals are required to flexibly modify their communicative behaviour in response to current social challenges. To unravel whether sociality and communication systems co-evolve, research efforts have often targeted the links between social organisation and communicative repertoires. However, it is still unclear which social or interactional factors directly predict communicative complexity. To address this issue, we studied wild and zoo-housed immature orangutans of two species to assess the impact of the socio-ecological setting on the production of non-vocal signal repertoires. Specifically, we compared repertoire size, dyadic repertoire similarity, and number of social goals (i.e. observer’s estimate of the signaller’s intended interaction outcome) for communicative interactions with mothers versus other conspecifics, controlling for critical individual and environmental factors. In this small sample of immature orangutans, wild-captive contrasts were statistically significant only for other-directed repertoires, but not for mother-directed repertoires, and not for the number of social goals that immatures communicated towards. While the repertoires of individuals living in the same research setting were more similar than those living in contrasting settings, this difference was most pronounced for other-directed repertoires of the less socially tolerant orangutan species. These results suggest that the boosted interactional opportunities in captivity rather than mere differences in environmental affordances or communicative needs drive the wild-captive contrast in orangutan communicative repertoires. Overall, this fine-grained analysis of repertoires further underscores that not only a species’ social organisation but also the targeted audience may have a profound impact on communicative behaviour. Significance statement Navigating a dynamic social environment often requires flexible signal use. While it has repeatedly been shown that the social organisation and structure of species predict the complexity of their communication systems, the mechanisms underlying these relationships are largely unknown. Because targeted studies to assess this issue in great apes are difficult, we take an alternative approach here: we compare the same species living in the wild and in artificial habitats in captivity. This contrast allows a direct test of how repertoires respond to the relevant difference in socio-ecological conditions. Our results show that the diversity of interaction partners (i.e. social opportunities), but not the diversity of social goals (i.e. possible interaction outcomes) or the broader physical opportunities (i.e. safe ground use), predict the size and consistency of wild and captive signalling repertoires.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

Fröhlich,

van Noordwijk,

Mitra Setia

et al. 2024

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…In our study, we investigate the relative contributions of environmental, genetic, and non-genetic maternal effects (hereafter maternal effects) to variation in cortisol phenotypes in wild chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are a long-lived species, have a gestation period of approximately 8 months 35 , and a prolonged immature dependency lasting at least 10 years 36 , in which there is emerging evidence of maternal influences in growth, social development, survival, and future reproductive success 37 – 40 . Chimpanzees live in societies with a high degree of fission-fusion dynamics 41 , and adults have relatively stable social phenotypes across years 42 , with certain adult females, and thus mothers, consistently more gregarious and social than other individuals 43 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the prolonged maternal dependency observed in chimpanzees 37 – 40 , coupled with evidence of genetic regulation of circadian cortisol responses in humans 14 – 17 , we anticipated both genetic and non-genetic maternal effects to make substantial contributions to variation in cortisol patterns in wild chimpanzees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shared community effects and the non-genetic maternal environment shape cortisol levels in wild chimpanzees

et al. 2023

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Mechanisms of inheritance remain poorly defined for many fitness-mediating traits, especially in long-lived animals with protracted development. Using 6,123 urinary samples from 170 wild chimpanzees, we examined the contributions of genetics, non-genetic maternal effects, and shared community effects on variation in cortisol levels, an established predictor of survival in long-lived primates. Despite evidence for consistent individual variation in cortisol levels across years, between-group effects were more influential and made an overwhelming contribution to variation in this trait. Focusing on within-group variation, non-genetic maternal effects accounted for 8% of the individual differences in average cortisol levels, significantly more than that attributable to genetic factors, which was indistinguishable from zero. These maternal effects are consistent with a primary role of a shared environment in shaping physiology. For chimpanzees, and perhaps other species with long life histories, community and maternal effects appear more relevant than genetic inheritance in shaping key physiological traits.

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Maternal effects on the development of vocal communication in wild chimpanzees

Cited by 2 publications

References 102 publications

Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

Shared community effects and the non-genetic maternal environment shape cortisol levels in wild chimpanzees

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