Noninvasive paternity assignment in Gombe chimpanzees

Constable, Julie L.; Ashley, Mary V.; Goodall, Jane; Pusey, Anne E.

doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2001.01262.x

Cited by 307 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…In the three primate populations where paternal sibling nepotism has been studied (rhesus macaques at Cayo Santiago, baboons at Amboseli, and chimpanzees at Ngogo), the majority of similarly aged dyads do not consist of paternal siblings (Table 1, second row). Age proximity may not be a reliable cue for paternal sibship in these populations because male reproductive skew at any given time is not extreme, and males produce offspring throughout their entire adult life rather than only during a narrow time window (32)(33)(34)(35)(36). At Ngogo, patterns of male reproduction result in a situation where members of different age cohorts are as closely related to each other as individuals of the same age cohort (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limited impact of kinship on cooperation in wild chimpanzees

Langergraber

Mitani

Vigilant

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

353

302

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The complex cooperative behavior exhibited by wild chimpanzees generates considerable theoretical and empirical interest, yet we know very little about the mechanisms responsible for its evolution. Here, we investigate the influence of kinship on the cooperative behavior of male chimpanzees living in an unusually large community at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Using long-term field observations and molecular genetic techniques to identify kin relations between individuals, we show that male chimpanzees clearly prefer to affiliate and cooperate with their maternal brothers in several behavioral contexts. Despite these results, additional analyses reveal that the impact of kinship is limited; paternal brothers do not selectively affiliate and cooperate, probably because they cannot be reliably recognized, and the majority of highly affiliative and cooperative dyads are actually unrelated or distantly related. These findings add to a growing body of research that indicates that animals cooperate with each other to obtain both direct and indirect fitness benefits and that complex cooperation can occur between kin and nonkin alike.Pan troglodytes ͉ genotyping ͉ kin recognition ͉ microsatellites ͉ relatedness

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The limited impact of kinship on cooperation in wild chimpanzees

Langergraber

Mitani

Vigilant

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

353

302

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“…Competition is a ubiquitous problem for social-living species such as chimpanzees and bonobos that must compete for food when foraging in groups, as well as compete with others for access to mates. Status relative to competitors is also an important predictor of access to both types of resources in apes (Parish 1996;Constable et al 2001;Wittig & Boesch 2003b;Surbeck et al 2011). Thus, apes may have viewed the human competitor as a threat to their resources, and the competitive condition thus would reflect a meaningful social interaction in terms of making economic decisions about food.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of intragroup competition, both species compete over monopolizable food such as meat or large fruits (Boesch et al 2002). Both species also compete for dominance rank, and rank can play a crucial role in determining who has preferential access to food and mates in social interactions (Parish 1996;Pusey et al 1997;Constable et al 2001;Wittig & Boesch 2003a;Surbeck et al 2011). Various aspects of intergroup behaviour in apes are likely also related to competition for resources.…”

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confidence: 99%

Decision making across social contexts: competition increases preferences for risk in chimpanzees and bonobos

Rosati

Hare

2012

Animal Behaviour

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Context can have a powerful influence on decision-making strategies in humans. In particular, people sometimes shift their economic preferences depending on the broader social context, such as the presence of potential competitors or mating partners. Despite the important role of competition in primate conspecific interactions, as well as evidence that competitive social contexts impact primates' social cognitive skills, there has been little study of how social context influences the strategies that nonhumans show when making decisions about the value of resources. Here we investigate the impact of social context on preferences for risk (variability in payoffs) in our two closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and bonobos, Pan paniscus. In a first study, we examine the impact of competition on patterns of risky choice. In a second study, we examine whether a positive play context affects risky choices. We find that (1) apes are more likely to choose the risky option when making decisions in a competitive context; and (2) the play context did not influence their risk preferences. Overall these results suggest that some types of social contexts can shift patterns of decision making in nonhuman apes, much like in humans. Comparative studies of chimpanzees and bonobos can therefore help illuminate the evolutionary processes shaping human economic behaviour. . Understanding the role of social context in shaping decision-making strategies is particularly important for biologists and psychologists who are interested in understanding behaviour in the real world, as gregarious species like primates must constantly make value-based decisions in the company of others. While cooperation in nonhumans has received increasing attention, little comparative research has examined the role of social context in shaping decisions when an individual's payoffs do not directly depend on their partner's behaviour. In the current study we therefore examine the impact of social context on risk preferences in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and bonobos, Pan paniscus, our closest phylogenetic relatives.Studies of social context and decision making in humans have generally been motivated by evolutionary hypotheses concerning how the presence or absence of certain social partners might alter how decision makers value resources. In one study, Wilson & Daly (2004) found that men who viewed images of attractive women had steeper temporal discounting rates, devaluing the future much more heavily than men who viewed unattractive women or cars. That is, looking at attractive women made men more impulsive or present oriented, possibly because the attractive women cued men into the possibility that current possession of goods could increase mating opportunities. Social context also modulates people's willingness to take economic risks (or accept variability in payoffs). For example, men became more likely to choose risky options when their choices were watched by an observer of equal status, compared to when relative status was ...

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“…In other words, we accounted for changes in the dominance hierarchy over the 8 years of study rather than using a male's average rank over the study period. Because factors such as mating success, paternity outcomes, and aggressive behavior all decline precipitously with rank in chimpanzees (Boesch et al, 2006;Constable et al, 2001;Duffy et al, 2007;Muller and Wrangham, 2004a), we considered the top 4 ranking males in any year to be "high-ranking" and the remaining adults to be "low-ranking" in our categorical analysis. In order to control for fluctuating food availability, we conducted a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, matching high and low-ranking males in each season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urinary C-peptide tracks seasonal and individual variation in energy balance in wild chimpanzees

Thompson

Muller

Wrangham

et al. 2009

Hormones and Behavior

104

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C-peptide of insulin presents a promising new tool for behavioral ecologists that allows for regular, noninvasive assessment of energetic condition in wild animals. C-peptide is produced on an equimolar basis with insulin, thus is indicative of the body's response to available glucose and, with repeated measurement, provides a biomarker of energy balance. As yet, few studies have validated the efficacy of C-peptide for monitoring energy balance in wild animals. Here, we assess seasonal and interindividual variation in urinary C-peptide concentrations of East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). We assayed 519 urine samples from 13 adult male chimpanzees in the Kanyawara community of Kibale National Park, Uganda. Cpeptide levels were significantly predicted by the total amount of fruit and the amount of preferred fruit in the diet. However, chimpanzees had very low C-peptide titers during an epidemic of severe respiratory illness, despite highly favorable feeding conditions. Kanyawara males had significantly lower C-peptide levels than males at Ngogo, a nearby chimpanzee community occupying a more productive habitat. Among Kanyawara males, low-ranking males had consistently higher C-peptide levels than dominant males. While counterintuitive, this result supports previous findings of costs associated with dominance in male chimpanzees. Our preliminary investigations demonstrate that C-peptide has wide applications in field research, providing an accessible tool for evaluating seasonal and individual variation in energetic condition, as well as the costs of processes such as immune function and reproduction.

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Noninvasive paternity assignment in Gombe chimpanzees

Cited by 307 publications

References 36 publications

The limited impact of kinship on cooperation in wild chimpanzees

The limited impact of kinship on cooperation in wild chimpanzees

Decision making across social contexts: competition increases preferences for risk in chimpanzees and bonobos

Urinary C-peptide tracks seasonal and individual variation in energy balance in wild chimpanzees

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