How Valid is a Sociobiological Model of Aggression?
JILL PRUETZ 2:20 – 3:00 p.m. This study quantified aggressive and affiliative behavior in western chimpanzees living in a savanna habitat in southeastern Senegal. Only rarely were Fongoli chimpanzees observed to exhibit behavior associated with intercommunity aggression and, in one of the two clear instances in which chimpanzees were observed at the edge of their range, males advertised their presence via continuous long-calling as opposed to the silent patrolling behavior (leading to ambush and attack) that often characterizes Eastern chimpanzees. The Fongoli community of chimpanzees was also predicted to exhibit a bisexually bonded rather than a male-bonded community based on previous study of this subspecies status and, because compared to chimpanzees living in forested habitats, savanna chimpanzees have been hypothesized to move in a migratory fashion as a cohesive community within their relatively larger home ranges. This was found to be the case at Fongoli in particular months of
