Abstract
The importance of cultural processes to behavioural diversity in our closest living relatives is central to revealing the evolutionary origins of human culture. However, the bonobo is often overlooked as a candidate model. Further, a prominent critique to many examples of proposed animal cultures is premature exclusion of environmental confounds known to shape behavioural phenotypes. We addressed these gaps by investigating variation in prey preference between neighbouring bonobo groups that associate and overlap space use. We find group preference for duiker or anomalure hunting otherwise unexplained by variation in spatial usage, seasonality, or hunting party size, composition, and cohesion. Our findings demonstrate that group-specific behaviours emerge independently of the local ecology, indicating that hunting techniques in bonobos may be culturally transmitted. The tolerant intergroup relations of bonobos offer an ideal context to explore drivers of behavioural phenotypes, the essential investigations for phylogenetic constructs of the evolutionary origins of culture.
Highlights
Humans and other social animals exhibit a diversity of behavioural phenotypes attributed to genetic and/or social evolutionary processes influenced by the environment (Castro and Toro, 2004; Van Schaik et al, 2003; Whiten, 2017)
While culture is identified as a pivotal selective process in human evolution (Boyd and Richerson, 1995; Castro and Toro, 2004; Creanza et al, 2017), its relative contribution to shaping the behavioural diversity observed in non-human animals, including our closest living relatives, remains debated
In comparison to the other great ape species, little is known about potential cultural traits in bonobos (Pan paniscus) (Whiten, 2017), thereby limiting phylogenetic comparisons
Summary
Humans and other social animals exhibit a diversity of behavioural phenotypes attributed to genetic and/or social (i.e., culture) evolutionary processes influenced by the environment (Castro and Toro, 2004; Van Schaik et al, 2003; Whiten, 2017). Bonobos and chimpanzees, hunt a variety of species across groups and populations (Gilby et al, 2015; Hobaiter et al, 2017; Hohmann and Fruth, 2008; Sakamaki et al, 2016; Samuni et al, 2018; Wakefield et al, 2019) It remains unclear whether this diversity is independent of large or even small-scale ecological variation in the distribution of prey species (Hobaiter et al, 2017; Sakamaki et al, 2016). We tested whether variation in prey preference between the two bonobo groups is explained by a) environmental variables, such as area usage and seasonality, and/or b) social factors, such as the number of hunters and group identity
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
