eastern chimpanzee pan troglodytes schweinfurthii

3) The behavior is less common in the West African chimpanzee subspecies ( P. 2) Most lethal events involve attacks on individuals from neighboring chimpanzee communities. Further patterns in the data include the following: 1) Most lethal aggression of weaned individuals involves adult males as both the victims and attackers. Instead, the authors concluded that an evolutionary adaptive explanation better fit the pattern of lethal aggression recorded in chimpanzees because indicators of competition intensity, such as the number of adult males within a community and population density, were the best predictors of lethal events (Wilson et al. The analyses did not support the hypothesis that anthropogenic disturbance caused lethal aggression in chimpanzees (Wilson et al. A recent summary of lethal events at 18 chimpanzee and 6 bonobo ( Pan paniscus) study sites representing 518 observer years of records found that intracommunity killing of weaned individuals was rare, with only 9 observed and inferred cases reported for a total 426 observation years (Wilson et al.

Lethal aggression in and between chimpanzee communities has been reported at almost every long-term research site where these apes have been studied for more than a decade (Wilson et al. It is most common in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes), one of the most intensively studied wild primates. This pattern may relate to differences in population densities, research effort, and subspecies differences in biology and behavior.Ĭoalitionary killing among adults has been reported in several nonhuman primate species but is rare (Wilson et al. Coalitionary killing is rare among West African chimpanzees compared to the East African chimpanzee ( P. We report attacks by multiple chimpanzees on his dead body, most frequently by a young adult male and an older female. We describe the male’s presence in the community, his overthrow, social peripheralization for >5 yr, and his attempt to rejoin the group as well as circumstances surrounding his death. We report an inferred lethal attack by resident males on a former alpha male chimpanzee ( P. Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) provide the largest sample of recorded lethal coalitionary aggression in nonhuman primates, and most long-term chimpanzee study sites have recorded coalitionary killing of conspecifics. Lethal coalitionary aggression is of significant interest to primatologists and anthropologists given its pervasiveness in human, but not nonhuman, animal societies.

Eastern chimpanzee pan troglodytes schweinfurthii