Variation in hunting behaviour in neighbouring chimpanzee communities in the Budongo forest, Uganda

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 6; p. e0178065
• Main Authors: Hobaiter, Catherine, Samuni, Liran, Mullins, Caroline, Akankwasa, Walter John, Zuberbühler, Klaus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21-06-2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal cognition; Animals; Behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Chimpanzees; Communities; Community participation; Delphinidae; Disruption; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Evolution; Feeding Behavior - physiology; Female; Food; Foraging behavior; Forests; Group dynamics; Human behavior; Hunting; Immigrants; Male; Meat; Medicine and Health Sciences; Monkeys; Monkeys & apes; National parks; Neurosciences; Pan troglodytes; Pan troglodytes - physiology; Pan troglodytes - psychology; Predatory Behavior; Prey; Species; Uganda; Scotland; Uganda; Germany; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178065

Hunting and sharing of meat is seen across all chimpanzee sites, with variation in prey preferences, hunting techniques, frequencies, and success rates. Here, we compared hunting and meat-eating behaviour in two adjacent chimpanzee communities (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) of Budongo Forest, Uganda: the Waibira and Sonso communities. We observed consistent between-group differences in prey-species preferences and in post-hunting behaviour. Sonso chimpanzees show a strong prey preference for Guereza colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza occidentalis; 74.9% hunts), and hunt regularly (1-2 times a month) but with large year-to-year and month-to-month variation. Waibira chimpanzee prey preferences are distributed across primate and duiker species, and resemble those described in an early study of Sonso hunting. Waibira chimpanzees (which include ex-Sonso immigrants) have been observed to feed on red duiker (Cephalophus natalensis; 25%, 9/36 hunts), a species Sonso has never been recorded to feed on (18 years data, 27 years observations), despite no apparent differences in prey distribution; and show less rank-related harassment of meat possessors. We discuss the two most likely and probably interrelated explanations for the observed intergroup variation in chimpanzee hunting behaviour, that is, long-term disruption of complex group-level behaviour due to human presence and possible socially transmitted differences in prey preferences.