Abstract
Chimpanzee females of East and West African populations differ in the average number of cycles per interbirth interval. Whereas females in Gombe, Mahale, and Kibale (eastern chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) average <9 cycles before they conceive, females at Taï (western chimpanzees; Pan troglodytes verus) average 29 cycles. We examined data from 2 different study groups (North and South) at Taï. By showing that Taï females interrupt cyclic activity for, on average, 7.4 mo between the end of the postpartum amenorrhea period (PPA) and the subsequent conception, and by calculating the number of cycles to conception based on a probability distribution of cycles over the interbirth interval, we show that Taï females average 19.4 cycles (North Group) and 11.7 cycles (South Group) to conception; therefore, the earlier calculation of 29 cycles was an overestimate. Further, at Taï young parous females have a significantly shorter PPA than those of older females, but the number of cycles to conception does not differ significantly between primiparous and nulliparous females. Some of our results are therefore not in line with the predictions of the cost-of-sexual-attraction hypothesis, which proposes that the factor ultimately responsible for the intensity of female sexual attractiveness is female intragroup scramble competition. We discuss an alternative hypothesis—the social passport hypothesis—which is compatible with the results of the study.
References
Altmann, J., Hausfater, G., & Altmann, S. A. (1988). Determinants of reproductive success in Savannah baboons, Papio cynocephalus. In T. H. Clutton-Brock (Ed.), Reproductive success. Studies of individual variation in contrasting breeding systems (pp. 403–418). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Anderson, D. P. (2001). Tree phenology and distribution, and their relation to chimpanzee social ecology in the Tai National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Berger, J., & Cunningham, C. (1994). Bison: Mating and conservation in small populations. New York: Columbia University Press.
Boesch, C., & Boesch-Achermann, H. (2000). The chimpanzees of the Tai forest. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bygott, J. D. (1979). Agonistic behavior, dominance, and social structure in wild chimpanzees of the Gombe National Park. In D. A. Hamburg & E. R. McCown (Eds.), The great apes (pp. 405–427). Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.
Connor, R. C., Richards, A. F., Smolker, R. A., & Mann, J. (1996). Patterns of female attractiveness in Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins. Behaviour, 133, 37–69.
Coté, S. D., & Festa-Bianchet, M. (2001). Offspring sex ratio in relation to maternal age and social rank in mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 49, 260–265.
Crews, D., & Moore, M. C. (1986). Evolution of mechanisms controlling mating behaviour. Science, 231, 121–125.
Deschner, T., Heistermann, M., Hodges, K., & Boesch, C. (2003). Timing and probability of ovulation in relation to sex skin swelling in wild West African chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus. Animal Behavior, 66, 551–560.
de Waal, F. B. M. (1978). Exploitative and familiarity-dependent support strategies in a colony of semi-free living chimpanzees. Behaviour, 66, 268–311.
Domb, L. G., & Pagel, M. (2001). Sexual swellings advertise female quality in wild baboons. Nature, 410, 204–206.
Doran, D. (1997). Influence of seasonality on activity patterns, feeding behavior, ranging, and grouping patterns in Tai chimpanzees. International Journal of Primatology, 18, 183–206.
Formenty, P., Boesch, C., Wyers, M., Steiner, C., Donati, F., Dind, F., et al. (1999). Ebola outbreak in wild chimpanzees living in a rainforest of Côte d’Ivoire. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 179, 120–126.
Furuichi, T. (1987). Sexual swelling, receptivity, and grouping of wild pygmy chimpanzee females at Wamba Zaire. Primates, 28, 309–318.
Goodall, J. (1986). The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behavior. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Goossens, B., Graziani, L., Waits, L. P., Farand, E., Magnolon, S., Coulon, J., et al. (1998). Extra-pair paternity in the monogamous Alpine marmot revealed by nuclear DNA microsatellite analysis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 7, 49–54.
Hausfater, G., Altmann, J., & Altmann, S. A. (1982). Long-term consistency of dominance relations among female baboons (Papio cynocephalus). Science, 217, 752–755.
Hayssen, V., van Tienhoven, A., & van Tienhoven, A. (1993). Asdell’s patterns of mammalian reproduction; a compendium of species-specific data. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates.
Heistermann, M., Ziegler, T., van Schaik, C. P., Launhardt, K., Winkler, P., & Hodges, K. (2001). Loss of oestrus, concealed ovulation and paternity confusion in free-ranging hanuman langurs. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 268, 2445–2451.
Hrdy, S. B., & Whitten, P. L. (1987). Patterning of sexual activity. In B. B. Smuts, D. L. Cheney, R. M. Seyfarth, R. W. Wrangham, & T. T. Struhsaker (Eds.), Primate societies (pp. 370–384). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Keselman, H. J., Algina, J., & Kowalchuk, R. K. (2001). The analysis of repeated measures designs: A review. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 54, 1–20.
Knott, C. D. (2001). Female reproductive ecology of the apes: Implications for human evolution. In P. T. Ellison (Ed.), Reproductive ecology and human evolution (pp. 429–463). New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Lehmann, J., & Boesch, C. (submitted). Sex differences in sociality. American Journal Primatology.
Loy, J. (1987). The sexual behavior of african monkeys and the question of estrus. In E. Zucker (Ed.), Comparative behavior of African monkeys (pp. 175–195). New York: Alan R. Liss.
Nishida, T. (1979). The social structure of chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains. In D. A. Hamburg & E. R. McCown (Eds.), The great apes (pp. 73–122). Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.
Nishida, T. (1989). Social interactions between resident and immigrant female chimpanzees. In P. Heltne & L. Marquardt (Eds.), Understanding chimpanzees (pp. 68–89). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nishida, T., Corp, N., Hamai, M., Hasegawa, T., Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, M., Hosaka, K., et al. (2003). Demography, female life history and reproductive profiles among the chimpanzees of Mahale. American Journal of Primatology, 59, 99–121.
Nishida, T., & Kawanaka, K. (1985). Within-group cannibalism by adult male chimpanzees. Primates, 26, 274–284.
Nishida, T., Takasaki, H., & Takahata, Y. (1990). Demography and reproductive profiles. In T. Nishida (Ed.), The chimpanzees of the Mahale mountains: Sexual and life history strategies (pp. 63–97). Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
Noe, R., de Waal, F. B. M., & van Hoof, J. A. R. A. M. (1980). Types of dominance in a chimpanzee colony. Folia Primatologica, 34, 90–110.
Nunn, C. L. (1999). The evolution of exaggerated sexual swellings in primates and the graded-signal hypothesis. Animal Behavior, 58, 229–246.
Packer, C., Tatar, M., & Collins, A. (1998). Reproductive cessation in female mammals. Nature, 392, 807–810.
Pagel, M. (1994). The evolution of conspicuous oestrous advertisement in old world monkeys. Animal Behavior, 47, 1333–1341.
Pinheiro, J. C., & Bates, D. M. (2000). Mixed-effects models in S and S-PLUS. New York: Springer.
Pusey, A. E., & Packer, C. (1994). Infanticide in lions: Consequences and counterstrategies. In S. Parmigiani & F. S. vom Saal (Eds.), Infanticide and parental care (pp. 277–299). Harwood, London.
Pusey, A. E., Williams, J., & Goodall, J. (1997). The influence of dominance rank on the reproductive success of female chimpanzees. Science, 277, 828–831.
Steklis, H. D., & Whiteman, C. H. (1989). Loss of estrus in human evolution: Too many questions, too few answers. Ethology and Sociobiology, 10, 417–434.
Stumpf, R., & Boesch, C. (2006). The efficiacy of female choice in chimpanzees of the Taï forest, Côte d’Ivoire. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 60, 749–765.
Takasaki, H., Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, M., Takahata, Y., Byrne, R. W. & Kano, T. (1986). A case of unusually early postpartum resumption of estrous cycling in a young female chimpanzee in the wild. Primates, 27, 517–519.
van Noordwijk, M. A., & van Schaik, C. P. (2000). Reproductive patterns in eutherian mammals: Adaptations against infanticide. In C. P. van Schaik & C. H. Janson (Eds.), Infanticide by males and its implications (pp. 322–360). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
van Schaik, C. P., van Noordwijk, M. A., & Nunn, C. L. (1999). Sex and social evolution in primates. In P. C. Lee (Eds.), Comparative primate socioecology (pp. 204–231). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wallis, J. (1982). Sexual behavior of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Pregnant versus cycling females. American Journal of Primatology, 3, 77–88.
Wallis, J. (1997). A survey of reproductive parameters in the free-ranging chimpanzees of Gombe National Park. Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, 109, 297–307.
Wasser, S. K., Norton, G. W., Rhine, R. J., Klein, N., & Kleindorfer, S. (1998). Ageing and social rank effects on the reproductive system of free-ranging yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) at Mikumi National Park, Tanzania. Human Reproduction Update, 4, 430–438.
Wittig, R. M., & Boesch, C. (2003). Food competition and linear dominance hierarchy among female chimpanzees of the Taï National Park. International Journal of Primatology, 24, 847–867.
Wolff, J. O., & MacDonald, D. W. (2004). Promiscuous females protect their offspring. TREE, 19, 127–134.
Wrangham, R. W. (2000). Why are male chimpanzees more gregarious than mothers? A scramble competition hypothesis. In P. Kappeler (Eds.), Male primates (pp. 248–258). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wrangham, R. W. (2002). The cost of sexual attraction: Is there a trade-off in female Pan between sex appeal and received coercion? In C. Boesch, G. Hohmann, & L. F. Marchant (Eds.), Behavioural diversity in chimpanzees and bonobos (pp. 204–215). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Ministry of the Environment and Forests as well as the Ministry of Research of Côte d’Ivoire, the directorship of the Taï National Park, and the Swiss Research Center in Abidjan. For long-term data collection we thank Nohon Gregoire Kohon, Honora Néné, Nicaise Oulaï Daurid, Camille Bolé, Valentin Yagnon, and Benjamin Gouclaon. We thank D. Stahl for help with the statistical analysis; D. Zinner, M. Heistermann, B. Bradley, M. Arandjelovic, and 2 anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript; and J. Rist and J. Scheller for creation of the database. The Max Planck Society provided funding for the research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deschner, T., Boesch, C. Can the Patterns of Sexual Swelling Cycles in Female Taï Chimpanzees be Explained by the Cost-of-Sexual-Attraction Hypothesis?. Int J Primatol 28, 389–406 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-007-9120-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-007-9120-1