Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts
Abstract
Observations of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) provide valuable comparative data for understanding the significance of conspecific killing. Two kinds of hypothesis have been proposed. Lethal violence is sometimes concluded to be the result of adaptive strategies, such that killers ultimately gain fitness benefits by increasing their access to resources such as food or mates1,2,3,4,5. Alternatively, it could be a non-adaptive result of human impacts, such as habitat change or food provisioning6,7,8,9. To discriminate between these hypotheses we compiled information from 18 chimpanzee communities and 4 bonobo communities studied over five decades. Our data include 152 killings (n = 58 observed, 41 inferred, and 53 suspected killings) by chimpanzees in 15 communities and one suspected killing by bonobos. We found that males were the most frequent attackers (92% of participants) and victims (73%); most killings (66%) involved intercommunity attacks; and attackers greatly outnumbered their victims (median 8:1 ratio). Variation in killing rates was unrelated to measures of human impacts. Our results are compatible with previously proposed adaptive explanations for killing by chimpanzees, whereas the human impact hypothesis is not supported.
Citation
Wilson , M L , Boesch , C , Fruth , B , Furuichi , T , Gilby , I C , Hashimoto , C , Hobaiter , C , Hohmann , G , Itoh , N , Koops , K , Lloyd , J N , Matsuzawa , T , Mitani , J C , Mjungu , D C , Morgan , D , Muller , M N , Mundry , R , Nakamura , M , Pruetz , J , Pusey , A E , Riedel , J , Sanz , C , Schel , A M , Simmons , N , Waller , M , Watts , D P , White , F , Wittig , R M , Zuberbuehler , K & Wrangham , R W 2014 , ' Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts ' , Nature , vol. 513 , no. 7518 , pp. 414-417 . https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13727
Publication
Nature
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0028-0836Type
Journal item
Rights
© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://www.nature.com.
Description
This study was funded by National Science Foundation grants BCS-0648481 and LTREB-1052693 and National Institutes of Health grant R01 AI 058715.Collections
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