Utilizing the Great Ape Information Network (GAIN), an open-access nationwide database containing the detailed life history information of all apes who have lived or currently reside in Japan, we present a robust chimpanzee life table by single year of age and sex including 821 individuals spanning nearly a century, current through March 11, 2019. While the demographic composition and status of captive chimpanzees in Japan has been previously reported, longevity and mortality statistics have not. We show that female and male survivorship do not differ significantly, and that a live-born chimpanzee in Japan can expect to live 28.3 years (females 26.3, males 30.3). Life expectancy increases to 34.6 years (females 33.4, males 35.7) for individuals who reach one year of age, and to 40.4 years (females 39.2, males 41.5) for those who survive to adulthood. The oldest chimpanzee in Japan, a wild-born male, lived an estimated 68 years. One in six infants are stillborn, and nearly 80% of all infants born alive survive beyond their first birthday. Finally, we report that a seasonal death pattern exists and chimpanzees in Japan are more likely to decease in the winter months (Dec-Feb) than in any other season.

Detailed, long-term datasets on the life histories of long-lived species such as great apes are necessary to understand their survival patterns but are relatively rare. Such information requires prolonged and consistent record-keeping over many generations, so for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), this equates to many decades of input. As life history variables can be altered by differences in environmental influences (whether natural or artificial), there is substantial value to being able to compare across populations. Here, we present the first comparative analysis of life history data for two ex situ chimpanzee populations residing in North America (1975–2020; n = 730) and Japan (1980–2020; n = 660). Overall, survival patterns were similar between regions, and the median life expectancy from birth is estimated at 35.7 (95% CI = [32.4–40.0]) years for females and 30.1 (27.3–34.3) years for males across both populations. Females who survive to their first birthday are estimated to survive 42.4 (40.0–46.3) years and males 35.5 (32.6–38.0) years. We found that birth type (wild-born or captive-born) did not influence survival patterns in either population, but there were differential effects of sex on longevity. In the America population, males had higher mortality rates than females, whereas in the Japan population we found no differences between the sexes. First year mortality did not differ between populations for males (18–20%), but for females it was lower in America (15%) compared to Japan (25%). Survival patterns of chimpanzees in the present study will be useful for future investigation into potential causes of regional differences and cross-species comparisons.

No abstract