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A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania
Intercommunity (lethal) aggression is a familiar component of the behavioural repertoire of many forest-dwelling chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities. However, until now, the absence of intercommunity attacks – including killings – in communities that live in open, mosaic environments has suppor...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Nature Singapore
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10651548/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37615802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-023-01085-6 |
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author | Drummond-Clarke, Rhianna C. Fryns, Caroline Stewart, Fiona A. Piel, Alex K. |
author_facet | Drummond-Clarke, Rhianna C. Fryns, Caroline Stewart, Fiona A. Piel, Alex K. |
author_sort | Drummond-Clarke, Rhianna C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Intercommunity (lethal) aggression is a familiar component of the behavioural repertoire of many forest-dwelling chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities. However, until now, the absence of intercommunity attacks – including killings – in communities that live in open, mosaic environments has supported hypotheses of reduced resource competition in drier habitats, and informed referential models of early hominin social dynamics in a similar habitat. In June 2020, we observed the first instance of intercommunity lethal aggression, a male-committed infanticide, by the Issa chimpanzee community, which live in a savannah-mosaic habitat in the Issa Valley, western Tanzania. The carcass was recovered by researchers after it was abandoned by the attackers. Here, we give a detailed account of the events leading up to and including the infanticide, and contextualise our observations with what has been described for other chimpanzee communities. Notably, in contrast to the majority of reported intercommunity infanticides, the infant male victim was castrated (and not cannibalised), making this the youngest reported castration. This observation of intercommunity aggression disproves its hypothesised absence in savannah-dwelling chimpanzees, which by extension, has implications for early hominin evolution. We suggest that the near absence of observations of intercommunity aggression in savannah chimpanzee communities is most likely due to the lack of long-term study communities, and in some cases geographic isolation. We hypothesise that food-rich areas within a habitat with otherwise widely distributed food sources may select for intense intercommunity aggression despite the low population density characteristic of savannah communities. Anecdotes such as this add to the comparative database available on intercommunity killings in chimpanzee society, improving our ability to draw inferences about their evolutionary significance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10329-023-01085-6. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10651548 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer Nature Singapore |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-106515482023-08-24 A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania Drummond-Clarke, Rhianna C. Fryns, Caroline Stewart, Fiona A. Piel, Alex K. Primates Original Article Intercommunity (lethal) aggression is a familiar component of the behavioural repertoire of many forest-dwelling chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities. However, until now, the absence of intercommunity attacks – including killings – in communities that live in open, mosaic environments has supported hypotheses of reduced resource competition in drier habitats, and informed referential models of early hominin social dynamics in a similar habitat. In June 2020, we observed the first instance of intercommunity lethal aggression, a male-committed infanticide, by the Issa chimpanzee community, which live in a savannah-mosaic habitat in the Issa Valley, western Tanzania. The carcass was recovered by researchers after it was abandoned by the attackers. Here, we give a detailed account of the events leading up to and including the infanticide, and contextualise our observations with what has been described for other chimpanzee communities. Notably, in contrast to the majority of reported intercommunity infanticides, the infant male victim was castrated (and not cannibalised), making this the youngest reported castration. This observation of intercommunity aggression disproves its hypothesised absence in savannah-dwelling chimpanzees, which by extension, has implications for early hominin evolution. We suggest that the near absence of observations of intercommunity aggression in savannah chimpanzee communities is most likely due to the lack of long-term study communities, and in some cases geographic isolation. We hypothesise that food-rich areas within a habitat with otherwise widely distributed food sources may select for intense intercommunity aggression despite the low population density characteristic of savannah communities. Anecdotes such as this add to the comparative database available on intercommunity killings in chimpanzee society, improving our ability to draw inferences about their evolutionary significance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10329-023-01085-6. Springer Nature Singapore 2023-08-24 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10651548/ /pubmed/37615802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-023-01085-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Original Article Drummond-Clarke, Rhianna C. Fryns, Caroline Stewart, Fiona A. Piel, Alex K. A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title | A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title_full | A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title_fullStr | A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title_full_unstemmed | A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title_short | A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania |
title_sort | case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, issa valley, western tanzania |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10651548/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37615802 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-023-01085-6 |
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