Chimpanzee Behavior

Question 1

range of common chimp v range of bonobo

Answer 1

-common chimp - wider range

Question 2

characteristics of chimpanzees

Answer 2

• knuckle walking
• travel to forage
• sleep in nests at night
• largest brained primate

Question 3

Fiona Stewart

Answer 3

-studied the comfort of chimp nests - they are comfortable

Question 4

Jane Goodall

Answer 4

• biggest commitment to studying chimps
• began study in Gombe National Park, Tanzania
• 1st person to habituate chimps, sit close to them and identify them individually
• today: spends most of time on conservation

Question 5

Discoveries about chimp behavior

Answer 5

• tool-making - leaves as sponges; ant dipping
• meat eating
• use medicinal plants to get rid of worms
• complex social relationships: mother/infant, greeting rituals, response to loss (emotional bonds)
• “warfare”
• infanticide/cannibalism

Question 6

social structure of chimps

• what is it
• who first discovered it and what name did he give it

Answer 6

• community - fission/fusion
• discovered by Toshiada Nishiada but he gave a name that didn’t stick (unit groups)
• Jane Goodall gave current name and this stuck

Question 7

foraging and traveling structure

• 7 types of traveling structures
• forage together or alone

Answer 7

• single female
• double female - juvenlies
• single female, multi-male
• single male
• multi-male
• single female + infant
• older mom and daughter with their children
• *all of the chimps know each other, but they don’t forage together

Question 8

adult male hierarchy

Answer 8

• sons enter dominance age around 15-20 years
• they move up if they are aggressive
• males stay within group

Question 9

Female special characteristics

Answer 9

• they emigrate, whereas usually males emigrate
• fertile: males hover around her; females are promiscuous - mates with several males until she is pregnant and travels with them; then travels alone until she gives birth

Question 10

Chimpanzee reunions

Answer 10

• groom each other upon reunion
• social grooming - reduces tension, social bonding, conflict resolution
• reconciliation

Question 11

maturation timeline

Answer 11

• pregnancy: 8 mo
• infancy: 3-4 yrs
• juv/subadult: 5-8 yrs
• puberty: 10-12 yrs (f); 11-13 yrs (m)
• adolescence/sterility: 2.5 yrs (f only)
• 1st pregnancy: 12-14 yrs

Question 12

female development path

Answer 12

-usually emigrate to new community between puberty and adolescence

Question 13

male development path

Answer 13

• stay in community
• dominance hierarchy during adolescence
• alpha at 25 yrs

Question 14

relationship between number of hunters and success of foraging

Answer 14

percent success of foraging increases with number of hunters

Question 15

Story of Figan and Faben

Answer 15

• 2 sons of Flo
• Faben was on the path to becoming alpha male but he got polio
• hooked up with his brother Figan and together they became dominant
• 2 brothers killed off males in another community

Question 16

Communities set up by Jane Goodall

Answer 16

• north to south
• Mitumba
• Kasakela (Figan and Faben lived here)
• Kahama
• Kalande
• gave out extensive bananas but this upset natural foraging patterns, so they stopped

Question 17

Jane Goodall timeline of events

Answer 17

• Provisioned Chimps (1962-67)
• Polio outbreak (1966) - Faben
• Provisioning reduced (1967-73)
• Kasakela and Kahama divided (1970); 2 distinct groups (1972)
• Attacks on Kahama males by Kasakela males (1974-77)