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Chimpanzee grouping patterns and food availability in Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to test for a correlation between party size and food (fruit) availability among the M group chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania. Chimpanzee unit groups (or communities) show fission–fusion grouping patterns and form temporal parties. Fruit availability is assumed to be one of the important limiting factors in relation to the size of these parties. Different methods have been proposed to measure party size, but they all appear to focus mainly on two aspects of grouping phenomena. In “face-to-face parties”, party size is measured by scan sampling, whereas in “nomadic parties”, all members observed during a specific time period are counted. The mean monthly group size resulting from these two measures was compared with fruit availability, i.e. fruiting plant density and mean potential patch size. Nomadic party size was correlated with both values. Thus, party formation at this level was considered to be sensitive to overall fruit availability in the habitat. On the other hand, face-to-face party size remained stable and showed weak or no correlations with density and potential patch size. Although large patches are available during the peak fruiting season, Mahale chimpanzees depend on the liana species Saba comorensis, which, when fruiting, encourages individuals to spread out to eat. Thus, the lack of correlation between face-to-face-party size and fruit availability was attributed to the influence of physical limitations countervailing the fluctuation in fruit availability. Maximum face-to-face party size relative to unit-group size, regarded as the cohesiveness of a unit group, was compared among sites. The values differed largely: Mahale groups M and K, Bossou, and, in some years, Budongo, showed high cohesiveness, while others remained low. Thus, the distribution of the most important food during the fruiting season in each study site may be a crucial factor in the grouping phenomena of chimpanzees.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (#07041138 to T.N. and #10041184 to K.K.), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellowships for Young Scientists (#04368 to N.I.), and Twenty First Century Centers of Excellence (A14 to T.N.). We thank the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), and Mahale Mountains Wildlife Research Centre for their logistic support. We also thank H.M. Nguli, G. Sabuni, C. Mlay, T. Nemoto and E. Masawe for support and encouragement. Special thanks go to J. Yamagiwa, S. Suzuki, T. Yumoto, T. Kano, and M. Remis and an anonymous referee for their useful comments. We are grateful to K. Adachi, M. Nakamura, Y. Takenoshita, S. Uehara, and K. Zamma for their valuable advice and encouragement; N. Corp, H. Ihobe, K. Ihobe, H. Nigi, H. Nishida, and T. Sakamaki for their cooperation in the field; and H.M. Mohamed, F. Malisa, D. Williams, and M. Lymo and other staff of TANAPA, who extended assistance to us in various ways. We deeply thank colleagues staying at Mahale from 1998 to 2001 for collecting data and granting permission to analyze them. Lastly, this research could not have been completed without the help of our Tongwe assistants: K. Athumani, H. Bunengwa, M. Bunengwa, M. Hamisi, M. Hawazi, R. Hawazi, R. Kitopeni, and M. Matumla.

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  1. Cultural, Regional and Historic Studies on the Environment (Cultural Anthropology), Department of Studies in Human Coexistence, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Noriko Itoh

  2. Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Japan

    Toshisada Nishida

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  1. Noriko Itoh
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  2. Toshisada Nishida
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Correspondence to Noriko Itoh.

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Itoh, N., Nishida, T. Chimpanzee grouping patterns and food availability in Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Primates 48, 87–96 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0031-0

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