Wild chimpanzees deprived a leopard of its kill: Implications for the origin of hominin confrontational scavenging

Abstract

This study reports the first observed case of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) obtaining animal prey freshly killed by a sympatric leopard (Panthera pardus) and scavenging it with the leopard still nearby. This observation has important implications for the emergence of confrontational scavenging, which may have played a significant role in human evolution. Many scholars agree that eating meat became important during human evolution, and hominins first obtained meat by scavenging. However, it is debatable whether scavenging behavior was "passive" or "confrontational (power)." The latter is more dangerous, as it requires facing the original predator, and it is thus considered to have been important for the evolution of several human traits, including cooperation and language. Chimpanzees do scavenge meat, although rarely, but no previous evidence of confrontational scavenging has hitherto emerged. Thus, it was assumed that they are averse to confrontation with even leopard-sized predators. However, in the observed case the chimpanzees frequently emitted waa barks, which indicated that they were aware of the leopard's presence but they nevertheless continued to eat the scavenged meat. In addition, we compiled and reviewed 49 cases of chimpanzee encounters with animal carcasses in the Mahale Mountains of Tanzania in 1980-2017. Chimpanzees scavenged meat in 36.7% of these cases, and tended to eat the meat when it was fresh or if the animal species was usually hunted by chimpanzees. However, no evidence indicated that carcasses were avoided when leopard involvement was likely. These results suggest that chimpanzee-sized hominins could potentially confront and deprive leopard-size carnivores of meat.

A chomped chimp: New evidence of tooth marks on an adult chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus)

“…While Pickering and Wallis () did not provide tooth mark measurements, the overall similarity in shape and size of the tooth marks inflicted by these captive chimpanzees on ungulate postcranial bones to the tooth marks on the chimpanzee cranium studied here means we cannot reject the possibility that chimpanzees inflicted the tooth marks on this cranium. This possibility is also supported by observations of chimpanzee lethal aggression and cannibalism (e.g., Pruetz et al, ; Wilson et al, ) as well as confrontational scavenging (Nakamura et al, ), whether they occurred around or after the time of death.…”

“…Tooth marks have regularly been used to confirm carnivore involvement in bone assemblage formation (Domínguez‐Rodrigo & Piqueras, ; Plummer & Stanford, ; Selvaggio & Wilder, ). In particular, tooth marks on bone have contributed to our understanding of ape diets and dietary behaviors (e.g., scavenging), and of apes as prey (de Ruiter & Berger, ; Domínguez‐Rodrigo & Piqueras, ; Nakamura et al, ; Nakazawa et al, ; Pickering et al, , ). Taphonomic observations, in combination with studies of predator behavior (e.g., Gandini & Baldwin, ; Pierce, ), indicate that predation of large‐bodied apes may be more common than is regularly recognized.…”

“…Most significantly, lions, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs do not commonly occur in forests, the type of ecosystem in which USNM 450071 was found. Leopards, on the other hand, are the most significant predators of common chimpanzees due to their largely overlapping habitat distributions (Nakamura et al, ). Leopards are known to prey on primates in the Taï Forest of Côte d'Ivoire (Zuberbühler & Jenny, ) as well as chimpanzees at Mahale, Tanzania (Gandini & Baldwin, ; Nakazawa et al, ) and bonobos in Central Africa (D'Amour et al, ).…”

The Internal, External and Extended Microbiomes of Hominins

“…Chimpanzees in all habitats where they are found in the wild eat meat (Moore et al, 2017), as do bonobos (Wakefield et al, 2019), leading many to think that the LCA did as well. Sometimes the meat chimpanzees consumed Is scavenged (Nakamura et al, 2019) but relatively rarely (compared to other foods in their diet). More often the meat is eaten fresh from kills, though chimpanzees exhibit great variability between communities in success, technique, and seasonality of hunting behavior (Moore et al, 2017;Figure 2).…”

Chimpanzees foraging on aquatic foods: algae scooping in Bossou

“…Another intriguing new paper (Nakamura et al 2019) reports the first observed case of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) obtaining animal prey freshly killed by a sympatric leopard (Panthera pardus), scavenging it with the leopard still nearby. This observation has important implications for the emergence of confrontational scavenging.…”