4.2 Article

Intercommunity interactions and killings in central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) from Loango National Park, Gabon

Journal

PRIMATES
Volume 62, Issue 5, Pages 709-722

Publisher

SPRINGER JAPAN KK
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-021-00921-x

Keywords

Chimpanzees; between-group competition; Imbalance-of-power; Temporal landscape partitioning; Home range overlap; Infanticide; Camera traps

Categories

Funding

  1. Max Planck Society
  2. ERC Consolidator Grant by the EU [772000]
  3. Projekt DEAL
  4. European Research Council (ERC) [772000] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)

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The study focused on intercommunity interactions of individuals in a community of central chimpanzees living in Loango National Park in Gabon. It revealed that males were the main participants in territorial patrols and intercommunity aggressions, while females also played important roles in intergroup interactions.
Intercommunity competition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) has been widely studied in eastern (P. t. schweinfurthii) and western (P. t. verus) communities. Both subspecies show hostility towards neighboring communities but differ in rates of lethal attacks and female involvement. However, relatively little is known about the territorial behavior of the two other subspecies, central (P. t. troglodytes) and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (P. t. ellioti). Here, we present the first insights into intercommunity interactions of individuals of a community of central chimpanzees living in the Loango National Park in Gabon. The presence of individuals of neighboring communities in the Rekambo home range was assessed using 27 camera traps. Information was compiled on intergroup interactions recorded before (2005-2016) and after (January 2017-June 2019) the habituation of the community. Individuals from neighboring communities entered the core area, where nine out of 16 recorded intercommunity encounters occurred. Males were the main participants in territorial patrols and intercommunity aggressions. Females were part of all six territorial patrols recorded and dependent offspring participated in five patrols. Females were involved in intercommunity aggression in five out of twelve recorded encounters in which there was visual contact between communities. While the intercommunity encounter rate was lower than that reported across most other long-term chimpanzee sites, the annual intercommunity killing rate was among the highest. These results suggest that the frequency of lethal attacks at Loango is comparable to that reported for the eastern subspecies. In contrast, female involvement in intercommunity interactions mirrors that of the western subspecies.

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