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Absence of specific individuals and high food abundance elicit food calls in wild western gorillas

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Abstract

Food calls are widespread across many mammal and bird species, but the reasons of this adaptive success are not yet fully understood. Using data from four habituated groups of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in Central Africa, we investigated the possible influence of ecological (food type and quantity) and social factors (presence, arrival and departure of specific group members) on food call production. Western gorillas emitted food calls mainly in foraging contexts. The emission probability increased with food types of high quality (in relation to the season) and, particularly, with abundant food patches. Food calls elicited the arrival of group members at the feeding tree. Adult females, the most frequent signallers, mostly emitted food calls when the silverback and all offspring were absent at the feeding tree, when compared to the absence of other group members. From the receiver perspective, the probability that the silverback and all offspring arrived at the feeding tree increased when adult females emitted food calls. When calling, adult females likely benefit by increasing both nutritional intake and protection of their own offspring (by increasing spatial proximity with the silverback). Moreover, food calls emitted in the second part of the duration of tree visits had the strongest effect on the prolongation of the feeding session. Our results suggest that the adaptive reasons of food calls in one-male harem species may be increasing group cohesion/coordination and facilitating offspring survival.

Significance statement

The adaptive reasons for the widespread presence of food calls in many animal species aremultiple and not mutually exclusive. We showed that western gorilla emitted food calls mainly in foraging contexts; they attract other group members and deliver information on the presence of abundant resources of high quality. Food calls emitted in the second part of the tree visit seem to prolong the feeding session. Adult females, the most frequent signallers, emitted food calls more often when their offspring and the silverback are absent. These results suggest that, in species with rather stable society (such as one-male harem), this behaviour may serve to increase cohesion/coordination and to facilitate offspring survival. This study is a first step for increasing our understanding on the presence of functionally referential calls in wild western gorillas.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Ministries of Education and Water and Forests of the Central African Republic government and the Ministry of Scientific Research of the Republic of Congo for giving us the permission to conduct this research project. We thank also Prof. Luigi Boitani for his scientific and institutional support. We are very grateful to the staff of the Dzanga-Sangha Project and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Central African Republic as also of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Congo Program in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park for supporting the research and providing logistical support. Thanks to the invaluable and numerous Aka gorilla trackers who have been crucial for the gorilla research. Special thanks to Roger Mundry and Benjamin Robira for their precious advices for the statistical analysis, Angelique Todd for sharing the data collection of the vegetation transects and Emmanuelle Pouydebat for her collaboration for the field mission in Republic of Congo. We thank Robert Seyfarth, David Watts and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments during the revision.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Museum of Natural History of Paris in France, the Labex BCDiv and the Action transversal du Museum (ATM) Emergence. It was institutionally and financially supported by the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in Italy.

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  1. UMR 7206 Eco-Anthropologie (Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle-CNRS-Univ. Paris 7), Musée de L’Homme, 17 Place Trocadéro, 75116, Paris, France

    Silvia Miglietta, Giulia Bardino, Andrea Sotto-Mayor, Aurore San Galli, Ellen Meulman & Shelly Masi

  2. Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Charles Darwin” (BBCD), University of Rome “La Sapienza”, viale dell’Università 32, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Silvia Miglietta & Giulia Bardino

  3. World Wide Fund for Nature, Reinhardtstrasse 18, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Thomas Breuer

  4. Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, World Wide Fund for Nature, BP 1053, Bangui, Central African Republic

    Terence Fuh

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Correspondence to Silvia Miglietta.

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Miglietta, S., Bardino, G., Sotto-Mayor, A. et al. Absence of specific individuals and high food abundance elicit food calls in wild western gorillas. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 75, 98 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03027-y

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