Adolescent Male Chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda Have Decided Dominance Relationships

Abstract

Dominance relationships are common among primates, and are usually the result of resource competition. Adult male chimpanzees have pronounced dominance relationships, and can be ranked relative to one another in dominance hierarchies. Adult male chimpanzees achieve, and maintain, high rank through a combination of physical size, strength and political ability. Dominance in male chimpanzees has very real benefits as high-ranking males have priority access to resources and potential mates, and father more offspring than do low-ranking conspecifics. Previous research has suggested that adolescent male chimpanzees do not have dominance relationships with each other. Here, I report the first evidence of decided dominance relationships and a linear dominance hierarchy in adolescent male chimpanzees from an unusually large community of wild chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda.