Abstract
In intact, mosaic ecosystems, chimpanzees are sympatric with a wide range of other mammals, which may be predators, prey, or competitors. We delve beyond the nominal data of species lists to interval-level data on 35 medium-bodied and large-bodied mammals encountered at a hot, dry, and open field site in far West Africa. Frequency of encounter, habitat where found, and number of individuals encountered are analysed for species for which enough data were accumulated. Further, we compare findings over three periods (1976–1979, 2000, 2012). Species most often encountered were those normally classed as typical savanna forms. Even a crude classification into forest, woodland, and grassland ecotypes yields differences in species likely to meet apes. Comparison of encounter rates over time was surprisingly congruent, although not all species seen in the 1970s survived to the 2000s. Overall, Assirik’s mammalian fauna is comparable to palaeo-faunal guilds sympatric with various extinct hominins.
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Acknowledgments
We thank: Direction des Parcs Nationaux du Senegal for permission to do the field research; American Philosophical Society, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Hampton Fund (Miami University), Leakey Foundation, National Geographical Society, Science Research Council (UK), Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for funding; all SAPP and MAPP participants for collecting data; C.J. Henty for preliminary data tabulation; F. Stewart and T. Webster for help in analysis; R. Bobe, K. Hunt, H. Ihobe, and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the manuscript. These results were presented preliminarily at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 2008.
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P. J. Baldwin: Deceased.
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McGrew, W.C., Baldwin, P.J., Marchant, L.F. et al. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and their mammalian sympatriates: Mt. Assirik, Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal. Primates 55, 525–532 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-014-0434-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-014-0434-2