Nutritional Ecology and Reproductive Output in Female Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Variation Among and Within Populations

Abstract

The efficiency with which animals procure calories and nutrients affects their growth, survival, and reproductive success (Bercovitch 1987; Altmann 1991, 1998; Koenig et al. 1997; Borries et al. 2001). In female primates, foraging efficiency may be a primary regulator of ovarian function, thus influencing the probability of conception and the duration of lactational amenorrhea (Knott 1998; Bentley 1999; Di Bitetti and Janson 2000; Brockman and van Schaik 2005). In particular, theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated that the quality and abundance of resources available and/or utilized during periods of relative food scarcity can have profound impacts on socioecology and population dynamics. Recently, attempts have been made to provide operational definitions of such resources (“fallback foods”; Lambert 2007; Marshall and Wrangham 2007; Marshall et al. 2009) and to generate testable hypotheses regarding their influence on primate ecology and evolution (see Potts et al. 2009; Harrison and Marshall 2011).