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Seasonal food changes and feeding behaviour adaptations of savanna chimpanzees at Nguye in Ugalla, Tanzania

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We studied the feeding strategies of savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Nguye in Ugalla, Western Tanzania (05°13'S, 30°28'E). Among the driest most open chimpanzee habitats, Ugalla is covered mainly by woodlands. We analysed undigested contents in chimpanzee faeces, and conducted a vegetation survey and a 1-year phenology survey every 2 weeks. The fruits of some trees with the highest biomass had high appearance rates in faeces (e.g. Parinari curatellifolia and Diplorhynchus condylocarpon). Herbaceous Aframomum mala fruits grew in large patches in savanna woodland near forest edges along rivers and had the highest appearance frequency over the longest seasonal period in faeces. Other species with higher appearance rates in faeces for long seasonal periods included Grewia mollis at the forest edge and Thespesia garckeana growing on termite mounds at the forest edge. These two tree species had low biomass. Thus, savanna chimpanzees fed on some tree foods with higher biomass, herbaceous fruits instead of scarcer tree fruits, and fruits at forest edges and in forests which occupy a small portion of the study area, in addition to woodlands which occupy a large proportion. The forest edge and interior run continuously for long distances along rivers. Forest occupies 2% of this area, but chimpanzees can continuously obtain food by moving along riverine forest. To compensate for fruit scarcity in the non-fruiting (early rainy) season, chimpanzees ate fibrous, low-quality plant parts. Chimpanzees formed smaller parties when ripe fruits and unripe legumes were scarcer. Using these feeding strategies, chimpanzees adapted to savanna woodlands.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Hosea Y. Kayumbo, George Sabuni, Julius D. Keyyu, and Toshimichi Nemoto for cooperation with our field surveys; Takayoshi Kano, Toshisada Nishida, Jim Moore, Hiroshi Kaneda, Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Alexander Piel, Fiona Stewart, and two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions regarding our study plan and articles. Emanweli K. Sehele, Batromeo Kadyugenze, Mapinduzi J. H. Mbalamwezi, John Joseph, and other local assistants who helped with our fieldwork; Yahya Abeid, Frank Mbago, and other members of the Herbarium of Dar es Salaam University, and Kaji Vollesen at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, who helped with plant identification. Only we are responsible for any mistakes in identification. We also thank John Zepernick (ThinkSCIENCE, Tokyo, Japan) for English-language support. This study was permitted by the Tanzanian authorities COSTECH (Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology) and TAWIRI (Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute). We were financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C06061064; B1257597; A17255005; C22570223; 11J07921) and the COE Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan; Global Environment Research Fund F061 and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (D-1007) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan; the advanced studies on the evolutionary origins of human nature (AS-HOPE) and International Training Program (ITP-HOPE), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0005, Japan

    Midori Yoshikawa

  2. Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chukyo University, Toyota, Japan

    Hideshi Ogawa

  3. School of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya, Japan

    Masaaki Koganezawa

  4. Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Gen’ichi Idani

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  1. Midori Yoshikawa
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Correspondence to Midori Yoshikawa.

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Yoshikawa, M., Ogawa, H., Koganezawa, M. et al. Seasonal food changes and feeding behaviour adaptations of savanna chimpanzees at Nguye in Ugalla, Tanzania. Primates 63, 585–601 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01018-9

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