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Sharing fruit of Treculia africana among western gorillas in the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon: Preliminary report

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Abstract

We report the first 18 observed cases of fruit (Treculia africana) transfer among western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. The fruit transfer occurred during our observations of a habituated group of gorillas in 2010 and 2013. Pieces of the fruits were transferred among adults and immatures, and three cases involved a silverback male. Once an individual picked up a fallen fruit of Treculia africana, other members of the group approached the possessor, who laid pieces of the fruits nearby and tolerated the others getting them. Agonistic interaction was rarely observed between the possessor and the non-possessor. Only the silverback male seemed to force another gorilla, a subadult male, to relinquish the fruit on the ground. He tolerated an adult female taking a piece of fruit on his leg and copulated with her on the following days. From these preliminary observations, most interactions over the fruit of Treculia africana among western gorillas in Moukalaba were not active transfer by the possessor but probably passive sharing. They were not only interpreted as a means of acquiring foraging skills by immatures (Nowell and Fletcher 2006) but also similar to behaviors observed in chimpanzees and bonobos in various social contexts.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted in cooperation with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CENAREST) and the Institut des Recherches en Ecologie Tropicale (IRET), Gabon. We thank the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux of the Gabonese government for permission and support for our research project in Gabon. We are also grateful to Dr. Yuji Takenoshita and Dr. Yuji Iwata for their cooperation. We are also greatly indebted to all of the field assistants at Moukalaba-Doudou National Park and the people in the villages of Doussala, Konzi, and Mboungou for their kind support and hospitality. This study was financed in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (No. 162550080, No. 19107007, No. 24255010 to J. Yamagiwa, and No. 251331 to K. Tsubokawa), and SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development) by JST/JICA, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Human Evolution Studies, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Juichi Yamagiwa, Keiko Tsubokawa, Eiji Inoue & Chieko Ando

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  1. Juichi Yamagiwa
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  2. Keiko Tsubokawa
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  3. Eiji Inoue
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  4. Chieko Ando
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Correspondence to Juichi Yamagiwa.

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Yamagiwa, J., Tsubokawa, K., Inoue, E. et al. Sharing fruit of Treculia africana among western gorillas in the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon: Preliminary report. Primates 56, 3–10 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-014-0433-3

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