Chimpanzees
Chimpanzee Droppings Lead Scientists to
Evolutionary Discovery by Erica F. Kosal, Biology Department, North Carolina Wesleyan College
Part I—Chimpanzee Behavior
Far in the remote western African jungles of Cameroon, Dr. Beatrice
Hahn and her team of scientists from the University of Alabama have been examining chimpanzee droppings. Members of the great ape family, chimpanzees typically travel in groups of to animals, forming smaller subgroups to forage during the day and then coming together again to sleep in trees at night. Communities lack a definite leader and are usually split into a number of subgroups, often when the animals go to forage. These subgroups (referred to as “fusion-fission groups”) are temporary and change in composition within a matter of hours or days. Dr. Hahn and her associates are taking advantage of this social structure to collect droppings easily in the mornings at the sleep sites after the chimp troop moves on to continue foraging elsewhere in the forest.
Chimpanzees, like humans, are omnivores. The animals typically search for vegetation and berries to consume. At times, they hunt cooperatively with one another to attack and kill monkeys, such as the red colobus monkey. Moreover, chimpanzees have been known to engage in warfare if a neighboring troop enters their territory.
Each troop is very close, forming bonds that last a lifetime. Animals groom one another, share food at times, and engage in play. Many members are genetically related to one another. Males seldom or never leave the community into which they are born, and siblings and pairs of male friends often travel together. Females, however, may leave to join another group permanently when in estrus (the time when females are fertile), moving freely between communities because they have not yet given birth, or may return to their original group after becoming pregnant.
Membership in the community is typically composed of mothers, their offspring, and several adult males
who
Evolutionary Discovery by Erica F. Kosal, Biology Department, North Carolina Wesleyan College
Part I—Chimpanzee Behavior
Far in the remote western African jungles of Cameroon, Dr. Beatrice
Hahn and her team of scientists from the University of Alabama have been examining chimpanzee droppings. Members of the great ape family, chimpanzees typically travel in groups of to animals, forming smaller subgroups to forage during the day and then coming together again to sleep in trees at night. Communities lack a definite leader and are usually split into a number of subgroups, often when the animals go to forage. These subgroups (referred to as “fusion-fission groups”) are temporary and change in composition within a matter of hours or days. Dr. Hahn and her associates are taking advantage of this social structure to collect droppings easily in the mornings at the sleep sites after the chimp troop moves on to continue foraging elsewhere in the forest.
Chimpanzees, like humans, are omnivores. The animals typically search for vegetation and berries to consume. At times, they hunt cooperatively with one another to attack and kill monkeys, such as the red colobus monkey. Moreover, chimpanzees have been known to engage in warfare if a neighboring troop enters their territory.
Each troop is very close, forming bonds that last a lifetime. Animals groom one another, share food at times, and engage in play. Many members are genetically related to one another. Males seldom or never leave the community into which they are born, and siblings and pairs of male friends often travel together. Females, however, may leave to join another group permanently when in estrus (the time when females are fertile), moving freely between communities because they have not yet given birth, or may return to their original group after becoming pregnant.
Membership in the community is typically composed of mothers, their offspring, and several adult males
who