Daily Energy Balance and Protein Gain Among Pan troglodytes verus in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire

N’Guessan, Alain; Ortmann, Sylvia; Boesch, Christophe

doi:10.1007/s10764-009-9354-1

Cited by 34 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The energy balance was estimated using similar methods as described in ref. 57; see Supporting Information for details. We only analyzed data from days that followed complete observation days (from nest departure to nest building) so that the relative energy balance could be compared between mornings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild chimpanzees plan their breakfast time, type, and location

Janmaat

Polansky

Ban

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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151

141

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Not all tropical fruits are equally desired by rainforest foragers and some fruit trees get depleted more quickly and carry fruit for shorter periods than others. We investigated whether a ripe-fruit specialist, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), arrived earlier at breakfast sites with very ephemeral and highly sought-after fruit, like figs, than sites with less ephemeral fruit that can be more predictably obtained throughout the entire day. We recorded when and where five adult female chimpanzees spent the night and acquired food for a total of 275 full days during three fruit-scarce periods in a West African tropical rainforest. We found that chimpanzees left their sleeping nests earlier (often before sunrise when the forest is still dark) when breakfasting on very ephemeral fruits, especially when they were farther away. Moreover, the females positioned their sleeping nests more in the direction of the next day's breakfast sites with ephemeral fruit compared with breakfast sites with other fruit. By analyzing departure times and nest positioning as a function of fruit type and location, while controlling for more parsimonious explanations, such as temperature, we found evidence that wild chimpanzees flexibly plan their breakfast time, type, and location after weighing multiple disparate pieces of information. Our study reveals a cognitive mechanism by which largebrained primates can buffer the effects of seasonal declines in food availability and increased interspecific competition to facilitate first access to nutritious food. We discuss the implications for theories on hominoid brain-size evolution.prospective cognition | flexible planning | ecological intelligence | interspecific competition | foraging strategies T hree decades ago, Katharine Milton hypothesized that the diversity of food and the manner in which it is distributed in space and time have been major selective forces in the development of advanced cerebral complexity (the ecological intelligence hypothesis) (1, 2). Positive associations between a variety of brain size measures and levels of frugivory (i.e., the dietary proportion of patchily distributed and ephemeral food) were found in primates (3, 4), bats, and rodents (5). However, the idea that body size evolves more rapidly than brain size, meaning the small relative brain size of folivores could be a nonequilibrial situation, kept scientists from interpreting these associations as clear support for Milton's hypothesis (6; but see also ref. 7). The ecological intelligence hypothesis was, however, retained as one of the four components of the technical intelligence hypothesis, developed to find evolutionary explanations of great apes' representational skills (6). It was renamed the "cognitive map hypothesis," which unintentionally focused attention solely on the complexity of the spatial mapping of food and largely ignored the potential difficulty of anticipating the time and duration that food is present.With recent comparative studies on brain size evolution, the role of the tempora...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wild chimpanzees plan their breakfast time, type, and location

Janmaat

Polansky

Ban

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

151

141

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“…There are also situations in which it is difficult to differentiate responses to necessity and opportunity. Adult female chimpanzees in the Tai forest opportunistically exploit Coula edulis nuts with tools during their period of seasonal abundance that could also be a response to necessity as the chimpanzees experienced a negative energy balance on half of the days surveyed [34]. While it is commonly suggested that limited food distribution and abundance may prompt the invention of novel foraging strategies, abundance of resources can also furnish the time and energy to pursue such activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…c Koops et al [32]. d Gunther & Boesch [33] and N'Guessan et al [34] (necessity: negative energy balance among some community members across seasons; opportunity: nut cracking tool use coincides with abundance of nuts; profitability: energetic gain from nut cracking). e Bogart & Pruetz [35, p. 11] (necessity: based on overall savannah environment rather than negative correlation with staple foods, 'invertebrates are an important source of protein and other essential nutrients in a highly seasonal environment', but termites are a staple component of the Fongoli chimpanzee diet, and their consumption is not correlated with periods of low fruit availability energy needs via other sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological and social correlates of chimpanzee tool use

Sanz

Morgan

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

105

146

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The emergence of technology has been suggested to coincide with scarcity of staple resources that led to innovations in the form of tool-assisted strategies to diversify or augment typical diets. We examined seasonal patterns of several types of tool use exhibited by a chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) population residing in central Africa, to determine whether their technical skills provided access to fallback resources when preferred food items were scarce. Chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle exhibit a diverse repertoire of tool behaviours, many of which are exhibited throughout the year. Further, they have developed specific tool sets to overcome the issues of accessibility to particular food items. Our conclusion is that these chimpanzees use a sophisticated tool technology to cope with seasonal changes in relative food abundance and gain access to high-quality foods. Subgroup sizes were smaller in tool using contexts than other foraging contexts, suggesting that the size of the social group may not be as important in promoting complex tool traditions as the frequency and type of social interactions. Further, reports from other populations and species showed that tool use may occur more often in response to ecological opportunities and relative profitability of foraging techniques than scarcity of resources.

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“…Protein requirements in chimpanzees have been estimated for growing individuals; 3.5–4.5 g/kg body weight/day for 2.6–6.4‐year‐old individuals with body weights of 10.0–24.1 kg . The estimated protein consumption in wild adult chimpanzees is approximately 60–200 g/day with large variations . It has been estimated that wild Bornean orangutans consume an average of 73.0 ± 33.9 g/day and 54.0 ± 33.6 g/day protein intake during high and low fruit periods, respectively .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%