Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Placentophagy in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Bossou, Guinea

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Primates Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Despite intensive observation of nonhuman great apes during long-term field studies, observations of great ape births in the wild are rare. Research on wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Bossou in the Republic of Guinea has been ongoing for 35 years, yet chimpanzee parturitions have been observed on only two occasions. Here we provide information regarding both chimpanzee births, with detailed information from the close observation of one. During this birth, the mother built a day nest in a tree before parturition. After giving birth, the mother consumed the placenta, and the other chimpanzees in her party gathered near her and her neonate. However, she did not share the placenta, and consumed it all herself. In the second observation, the mother also built a nest in a tree and subsequently gave birth. Thereafter, she shared the placenta with some individuals and consumed part of the placenta herself. Although maternal placentophagy is a ubiquitous behavior among the majority of non-human primates, observations of placenta sharing by wild primates are infrequent, and the proximate and ultimate explanations for the behavior remain unclear.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Apari P, Rózsa L (2006) Deal in the womb: fetal opiates, parent-offspring conflict, and the future of midwifery. Med Hypoth 67:1189–1194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boesch C, Boesch-Achermann H (2000) The chimpanzees of the Taii forest: behavioural ecology and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandt EM, Mitchell G (1971) Parturition in primates: behavior related to birth. In: Rosenblum LA (ed) Primate behavior: developments in field and laboratory research. Academic Press, New York, pp 177–223

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal FBM (1989) Food sharing and reciprocal obligations among chimpanzees. J Hum Evol 18:433–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas PH (2014) Female sociality during the daytime birth of a wild bonobo at Luikotale, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Primates 55:533–542

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galdikas BF (1982) Wild orangutan birth at Tanjung puting reserve. Primates 23:500–510

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilby IC, Emery Thompson M, Ruane JD, Wrangham RW (2010) No evidence of short-term exchange of meat for sex among chimpanzees. J Hum Evol 59:44–53

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes CM, Boesch C (2009) Wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex on a long-term basis. PLoS One 4:e5116

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goodall J (1967) Mother-offspring relationships in free-ranging chimpanzees. In: Morris D (ed) Primate ethology. Aldine, Chicago, pp 287–346

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall J (1968) The behaviour of free living chimpanzees of the Gombe Stream Reserve. Anim Behav Monog 1:161–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodall J, Athumani J (1980) An observed birth in a free-living chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Primates 21:545–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirata S, Fuwa K, Sugama K, Kusunoki K, Takeshita H (2011) Mechanism of birth in chimpanzees: humans are not unique among primates. Biol Letts 7:686–688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hockings KJ, Anderson JR, Matsuzawa T (2006) Road-crossing in chimpanzees: a risky business. Curr Biol 16:668–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hockings KJ, Humle T, Anderson JR, Biro D, Sousa C, Ohashi G, Matsuzawa T (2007) Chimpanzees share forbidden fruit. PLoS One 2:e886

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hockings KJ, Anderson JR, Matsuzawa T (2009) Use of wild and cultivated foods by chimpanzees at Bossou, Republic of Guinea: feeding dynamics in a human-influenced environment. Am J Primatol 71:636–646

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hockings KJ, Anderson JR, Matsuzawa T (2012) Socio-ecological adaptations by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) inhabiting an anthropogenically impacted habitat. Anim Behav 83:801–810

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humle T (2011) Location and ecology. In: Matsuzawa T, Humle T, Sugiyama Y (eds) The chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba. Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, pp 13–21

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jolly A (1972) Hour of birth in primates and man. Folia Primatol 18:108–121

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kiwede Z (2000) A live birth by a primiparous female chimpanzee at the Budongo forest. Pan Africa News 7:23–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristal MB (1980) Placentophagia: a biobehavioral enigma (or De gustibus non disputandum est). Neurosci Biobehav Rev 4:141–150

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kristal MB (1991) Enhancement of opioid-mediated analgesia: a solution to the enigma of placentophagia. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 15:425–435

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kristal MB, DiPirro JM, Thompson AC (2012) Placentophagia in humans and nonhuman mammals: causes and consequences. Ecol Food Nutr 51:177–197

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre L, Carli G (1985) Parturition in nonhuman primates: pain and auditory concealment. Pain 21:315–327

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mitani JC, Watts DP (2001) Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? Anim Behav 61:915–924

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morimura N, Idani G, Matsuzawa T (2011) The first chimpanzee sanctuary in Japan: an attempt to care for the “surplus” of biomedical research. Am J Primatol 73:226–232

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nishida T, Corp N, Hamai M, Hasegawa T, Hiraiwa-Hasegawa M, Hosaka K, Hunt KD, Itoh N, Kawanaka K, Matsumoto-Oda A, Mitani JC, Nakamura M, Norikoshi K, Sakamaki T, Turner L, Uehara S, Zamma K (2003) Demography, female life history, and reproductive profiles among the chimpanzees of Mahale. Am J Primatol 59:99–121

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pusey AE (1979) Intercommunity transfer of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park. In: Hamburg DA, McCown ER (eds) The Great Apes. B. Cummings, Menlo Park, pp 465–479

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratnayeke AP, Dittus WPJ (1989) Observation of a birth among wild toque macaques (Macaca sinica). Int J Primatol 10:235–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shimada MK, Hayakawa S, Fujita S, Sugiyama Y, Saitou N (2009) Skewed matrilineal genetic composition in a small wild chimpanzee community. Folia Primatol 80:19–32

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart KJ (1977) The birth of a wild mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei). Primates 18:965–976

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart KJ (1984) Parturition in wild gorillas: behaviour of mothers, neonates, and others. Folia Primatol 42:62–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiyama Y (1994) Age-specific birth rate and lifetime reproductive success of chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. Am J Primatol 32:311–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiyama Y (2004) Demographic parameters and life history of chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. Am J Phys Anthropol 124:154–165

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiyama Y, Fujita S (2011) The demography and reproductive parameters of Bossou chimpanzees. In: Matsuzawa T, Humle T, Sugiyama Y (eds) The chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba. Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, pp 23–34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tan J, Hare B (2013) Bonobos share with strangers. PLoS One 8:e51922

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Trevathan W (1987) Human birth: an evolutionary perspective. Aldine de Gruyter, Hawthorne

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner SE, Fedigan LM, Nakamichi M, Matthews HD, McKenna K, Nobuhara H, Nobuhara T, Shimizu K (2010) Birth in free-ranging Macaca fuscata. Int J Primatol 31:15–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Udono T, Teramoto M, Hayasaka I (1999) A review of 100 pregnancies in Chimpanzees at the Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyuusyo. Prim Res 15:243–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White F (1994) Food sharing in wild pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). In: Roeder JJ, Thierry B, Anderson JR, Herrenschmidt N (eds) Current primatology, Vol. II: Social development, learning and behavior. Universite´ Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, pp 1–10

  • Yamamoto S (2015) Non-reciprocal but peaceful fruit sharing in wild bonobos in Wamba. Behaviour 152:335–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zamma K, Sakamaki T, Kitopeni RS (2012) A wild chimpanzee birth at Mahale. Pan Africa news 19:3–5

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the DNRST, Guinea. We also thank the local assistants for their invaluable help and Bossou villagers for continuing support. We are grateful to M. Reilly, K.L. van Leeuwen for assistance in the field, and T. Udono for helpful comments. This work was supported by MEXT grants #20002001, #20040001, JSPS-HOPE and ITP-HOPE, Japan, to TM, and a research grant to KH from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal (PTDC/CS-ANT/121124/2010).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Michiko Fujisawa

  2. Primates Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Michiko Fujisawa & Tetsuro Matsuzawa

  3. Anthropology Centre for Conservation, Environment and Development, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

    Kimberley J. Hockings

  4. Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA-FCSH/UNL), New University of Lisbon, Lisbon, 1069-061, Portugal

    Kimberley J. Hockings

  5. Institute of Environmental Research at Bossou, Bossou, Guinea

    Aly Gaspard Soumah

Authors
  1. Michiko Fujisawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kimberley J. Hockings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aly Gaspard Soumah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tetsuro Matsuzawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michiko Fujisawa.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (WMV 9799 kb)

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fujisawa, M., Hockings, K.J., Soumah, A.G. et al. Placentophagy in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Bossou, Guinea. Primates 57, 175–180 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-016-0510-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-016-0510-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation