Hunting Activity Among Naturalistically Housed Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at the Fundació Mona (Girona, Spain). Predation, Occasional Consumption and Strategies in Rehabilitated Animals

Miquel Llorente,Marina Mosquera,Olga Feliu,Mei Ventura,David Riba

doi:10.3390/ani2030363

Abstract

Simple Summary:Hunting is well documented in wild chimpanzees, but has rarely been documented in captive chimpanzees. At Fundació Mona Primate Rescue we have obtained evidence of five episodes of hunting in rehabilitated chimpanzees who had no previous experience of these types of behaviors. This demonstrated that they were able to perform this species-typical behavior in a naturalistic environment without learning it in the wild.:Predatory behavior in wild chimpanzees and other primates has been well documented over the last 30 years. However, as it is an opportunistic behavior, conditions which may promote such behavior are left up to chance. Until now, predatory behavior among captive chimpanzees has been poorly documented. In this paper, we present five instances providing evidence of predatory behavior: four performed by isolated individuals and one carried out in cooperation. The evidence of group predation involved the chimpanzees adopting different roles as pursuers and ambushers. Prey was partially eaten in some cases, but not in the social episode. This study confirms that naturalistic environments allow chimpanzees to enhance species-typical behavioral patterns.

Highlights

Hunting is relatively wide spread among many wild primates
In the case of bird predation we found some similarities between Fundació Mona (FM) and wild chimpanzees
We emphasize the following conclusions: (1) predatory events are an important element of chimpanzee’s natural behavioral repertoire and should be considered as part of the design of enriched environments; (2) co-operative hunting roles for large prey are an emergent feature of chimpanzee social structures even in small groups; (3) predation may serve important social functions or alleviate boredom; and (4) females are active participants in hunting episodes, challenging some of the hunter/gatherer hypotheses regarding primate and hominin evolution

Summary

Introduction

Hunting is relatively wide spread among many wild primates. Predation is mainly specific to arthropods and small vertebrates [1,2]. Predatory behavior in wild chimpanzees has been well documented over the last 30 years [3,4,5,6,7]. Studies have shown that it is a systematic behavior in different populations of chimpanzees [8], which may occur either individually or cooperatively. Cooperative hunting has social implications since it helps to maintain and reinforce social relationships among the individuals of a group. The most commonly hunted prey is red colobus (Procolobus sp.). Participation in hunting África Bongo Charly Juanito Marco Nico Romie Sara Tico

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Conclusion