An Empirical and Theoretical Comparison of the Socio-ecological Behaviors of Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Bonobos (Pan paniscus), and Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): Social Tolerance and Behavioral Responses to Changes in Food Quality and Distribution

<p>Chimpanzees and gorillas are sympatric in most of their range in Central Africa, however, bonobos do not overlap with either of the other two species. This difference has been hypothesized to be the main factor leading to the socio-ecological traits of each species. Access to, and competition for, terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (THV) in each of the three species in thought to be linked to the social relationships and female-female bonds of each species. This study sought to provide a direct comparison of the social relationships of each of the three African Great Apes in captivity in order to elucidate similarities and differences in terms of their social tolerance. We hypothesized that bonobos and gorillas would both me more tolerant of conspecifics in close proximity across multiple behavioral contexts than chimpanzees. Our results did not support this hypothesis, in fact gorillas were the least tolerant of the three species whereas bonobos were the most tolerant. Theoretical modeling was also used to investigate the impact of changing environmental conditions on the behaviors of the three African Great Apes. Here, we hypothesized that high quality, clumped food would select for aggressive behaviors (characteristic of chimpanzees) and low quality, dispersed food would select for affiliative behaviors. Our results indicate that in these kinds of environmental conditions, these types of behaviors did emerge as stable. Moreover, environmental conditions mirroring those reported for gorillas and bonobos suggested the emergence of stable strategies that parallel social characteristics documented for those two species (such as gregariousness within groups).</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Integrative Biology (MSIB)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biology

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Milne, Scott C

Contributors dc:contributor

• Antonio Golubski, PhD
• Troy Mutchler, PhD

• chimpanzee
• bonobo
• gorilla
• tolerance
• socio-ecology
• theoretical ecology
• Biology
• Integrative Biology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/integrbiol_etd/8

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu:integrbiol_etd-1008