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14 - Ecological and social influences on rates of social play in immature wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2019

By
Yasmin Moebius ,
Peter D. Walsh ,
Grégoire K. Nohon  and
Christophe Boesch
Edited by
Christophe Boesch  and
Roman Wittig
Edited in association with
Catherine Crockford ,
Linda Vigilant ,
Tobias Deschner  and
Fabian Leendertz
Christophe Boesch
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Roman Wittig
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Catherine Crockford
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Linda Vigilant
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Tobias Deschner
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Fabian Leendertz
Affiliation:
Robert Koch-Institut, Germany
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Summary

A central component of primates’ social ontogeny is play with conspecifics. Play is constrained by ecological factors, especially food abundance, and social play is most likely limited by partner availability, which in turn can be related to ecology. However, how much social and ecological factors collectively influence social play rates has not yet been investigated. We used a multivariate approach to test to what degree fruit and partner availability affected social play rates of wild immature chimpanzees in Taï National Park. As fruit abundance and partner availability increased, infant and juvenile play rates rose, with juvenile play being affected more by fruit abundance than infant play. Partner availability predicted infant play rates better during the low than the high fruit availability season, which was not the case for juvenile play. Our results indicate that young chimpanzees face a trade-off in allocating time or energy to foraging and social play, with foraging becoming increasingly dominant with age. This joint analysis of social and ecological factors suggests that food abundance modulates the effect of partner availability on social play rates in young chimpanzees.

Keywords

OntogenySocial developmentEcological constraintsMaternal influenceMultivariate analysis
Type
Chapter
Information
The Chimpanzees of the Taï Forest
40 Years of Research
 , pp. 221 - 241
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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