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Skin temperature and reproductive condition in wild female chimpanzees

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Zuberbeuhler_2017_PeerJ_Skin_CCBY_VoR.pdf (1.457Mb)
Date
05/12/2017
Author
Dezecache, Guillaume
Wilke, Claudia
Richi, Nathalie
Neumann, Christof
Zuberbuhler, Klaus
Keywords
Infra-red thermography
Skin temperature
Wild chimpanzees
Pregnancy
BF Psychology
QL Zoology
DAS
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Abstract
Infrared thermal imaging has emerged as a valuable tool in veterinary medicine, in particular for evaluating reproductive processes. Here, we explored differences in skin temperature of twenty female chimpanzees in Budongo Forest, Uganda, four of which were pregnant during data collection. Based on previous literature in other mammals, we predicted increased skin temperature of maximally swollen reproductive organs of nonpregnant females when approaching peak fertility. For pregnant females, we made the same prediction because it has been argued that female chimpanzees have evolved mechanisms to conceal pregnancy, including swellings of the reproductive organs, conspicuous copulation calling, and solicitation of male mating behaviour, to decrease the infanticidal tendencies of resident males by confusing paternity. For non-pregnant females, we found slight temperature increases towards the end of the swelling cycles but no significant change between the fertile and non-fertile phases. Despite their different reproductive state, pregnant females had very similar skin temperature patterns compared to non-pregnant females, suggesting little potential for males to use skin temperature to recognise pregnancies, especially during maximal swelling, when ovulation is most likely to occur in non-pregnant females. We discuss this pattern in light of the concealment hypothesis, i.e., that female chimpanzees have evolved physiological means to conceal their reproductive state during pregnancy
Citation
Dezecache , G , Wilke , C , Richi , N , Neumann , C & Zuberbuhler , K 2017 , ' Skin temperature and reproductive condition in wild female chimpanzees ' , PeerJ , vol. 5 , e4116 . https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4116
Publication
PeerJ
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4116
ISSN
2167-8359
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Dezecache et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Description
The research was supported by a Fyssen fellowship awarded to Guillaume Dezecache, and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement (No 283871)
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12248

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