Dataset Information

Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity.

ABSTRACT: Large brains and behavioural innovation are positively correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic divergence and speciation. Here, using a dataset of 144 wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities, we show that chimpanzees exhibit greater behavioural diversity in environments with more variability - in both recent and historical timescales. Notably, distance from Pleistocene forest refugia is associated with the presence of a larger number of behavioural traits, including both tool and non-tool use behaviours. Since more than half of the behaviours investigated are also likely to be cultural, we suggest that environmental variability was a critical evolutionary force promoting the behavioural, as well as cultural diversification of great apes.

SUBMITTER: Kalan AK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7493986 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity.

Kalan Ammie K AK Kulik Lars L Arandjelovic Mimi M Boesch Christophe C Haas Fabian F Dieguez Paula P Barratt Christopher D CD Abwe Ekwoge E EE Agbor Anthony A Angedakin Samuel S Aubert Floris F Ayimisin Emmanuel Ayuk EA Bailey Emma E Bessone Mattia M Brazzola Gregory G Buh Valentine Ebua VE Chancellor Rebecca R Cohen Heather H Coupland Charlotte C Curran Bryan B Danquah Emmanuel E Deschner Tobias T Dowd Dervla D Eno-Nku Manasseh M Michael Fay J J Goedmakers Annemarie A Granjon Anne-Céline AC Head Josephine J Hedwig Daniela D Hermans Veerle V Jeffery Kathryn J KJ Jones Sorrel S Junker Jessica J Kadam Parag P Kambi Mohamed M Kienast Ivonne I Kujirakwinja Deo D Langergraber Kevin E KE Lapuente Juan J Larson Bradley B Lee Kevin C KC Leinert Vera V Llana Manuel M Marrocoli Sergio S Meier Amelia C AC Morgan Bethan B Morgan David D Neil Emily E Nicholl Sonia S Normand Emmanuelle E Ormsby Lucy Jayne LJ Pacheco Liliana L Piel Alex A Preece Jodie J Robbins Martha M MM Rundus Aaron A Sanz Crickette C Sommer Volker V Stewart Fiona F Tagg Nikki N Tennie Claudio C Vergnes Virginie V Welsh Adam A Wessling Erin G EG Willie Jacob J Wittig Roman M RM Yuh Yisa Ginath YG Zuberbühler Klaus K Kühl Hjalmar S HS

Nature communications 20200915 1

Large brains and behavioural innovation are positively correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic div ...[more]

PMID: 32934202

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Project description:Voluntary participation in behavioural studies offers several scientific, management, and welfare benefits to non-human primates (NHPs). Aside from the scientific benefit of increased understanding of NHP cognition, sociality, and behaviour derived from noninvasive behavioural studies, participation itself has the potential to provide functional simulations of natural behaviours, enrichment opportunities, and increased control over the captive environment, all of which enhance welfare. Despite a developing consensus that voluntary participation offers these welfare enhancements, little research has empirically investigated the ways that participation in behavioural studies may affect welfare. In the current study, we investigated potential relationships between captive chimpanzee welfare and long-term, repeated voluntary participation in noninvasive behavioural studies. We collected behavioural data on 118 chimpanzees at the National Center for Chimpanzee Care (NCCC) in Bastrop, Texas, USA between 2016 and 2018 using 15-minute focal animal samples. Additionally, we collected information on 41 behavioural studies conducted between 2010 and 2018 with the NCCC chimpanzees that involved exposure to a stimulus or manipulation. The total number of behavioural studies in which chimpanzees had participated over the approximately eight-year period was then examined in relation to levels of behavioural diversity, abnormal behaviour, rough scratching, inactivity, and locomotion using a series of regression analyses that controlled for rearing status and age of the chimpanzee at the time of data collection. Analyses revealed significant, positive relationships between the total number of studies in which chimpanzees participated and 1) behavioural diversity scores, R2 adj = .21, F(3,114) = 11.25, p < 0.001; and 2) rough scratching, R2 adj = .11, F(3,114) = 6.01, p = 0.001. The positive relationship between behavioural diversity scores and the total number of studies in which chimpanzees participated seems unsurprising, although we cannot draw conclusions about the directionality of this relationship. The result that rough scratching and the total number of studies in which chimpanzees participated were positively correlated is unexpected. However, rough scratching made up less than 1% of all activity in the current study, and as such, this result may not be biologically meaningful. These findings suggest that participation in behavioural studies is not likely to be detrimental to chimpanzee well-being, and may even be beneficial. Data such as these, which empirically investigate existing recommendations can help inform decisions pertaining to the participation of chimpanzees in behavioural research.

Dataset Information

Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity.

Publications

Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity.

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