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Subsistence Technology of Nigerian Chimpanzees

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Abstract

A trademark of Homo sapiens is the enormous variation in behavioral patterns across populations. Insight into the development of human cultures can be aided by studies on communities of Pan across Africa that display unique combinations of social behavior and elementary technology. Only cross-population comparisons can reveal whether the diversity reflects differential genetics, environmental constraints, or is a cultural variant. However, the recently recognized and most endangered subspecies, Pan troglodytes vellerosus, remains completely unstudied in this respect. We report first evidence from a new long-term study of Nigerian chimpanzees at Gashaka. Their dietary composition is highly varied and they have to cope with high concentrations of antifeedant defenses of plants against consumption. Gashaka chimpanzees use a varied tool kit for extractive foraging. For example, they harvest insects throughout the year, via digging sticks and probes, to obtain honey from stingless-bee and honeybee nests, dipping wands to prey on army ants, and fishing rods to eat arboreal ants. Tools appeared to be custom-made with a considerable degree of standardization in length, diameter, and preferential use of distal ends. Moreover, compared to the rainy season, tools were longer during the dry season when insects retreat further into their nests. Many of the expressions of subsistence technology seem to be environmentally constrained. Most notably, the absence of termite-eating could reflect a low abundance of mounds. Other traits may represent cultural variation. For example, the chimpanzees did not hammer open 2 types of hard-shelled nuts with tools, unlike what occurs elsewhere in West Africa. The prevalence of elementary technology may indicate that the material culture of Gashaka chimpanzees is most related to core cultural tendencies of Central African populations.

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Acknowledgments

The Nigeria National Park Service kindly granted a research permit to the Gashaka Primate Project (GPP). Gashaka-Gumti National Park and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) provided logistical support. Jeremiah Adanu, Judith Bovensiepen, Umaru Buba, Aylin McNamara, Jennifer Rogan, Asako Saegusa, and Yakubu Wakirwa contributed to the data collection. For identification of insects or plants, we thank J. D. Chapman (Canterbury), Britta Kunz (Wuerzburg), Judith Korb (Regensburg), David W. Roubik (Washington), Barry Bolton (Isle of Wight), Caspar Schöning (Berlin and Copenhagen). William McGrew, Caspar Schöning, and 2 anonymous reviewers provided useful comments on an earlier draft. The work would have been impossible without local field assistants, in particular Hammaunde Guruza, Buba Bello, Ali Tappare, and Sam Yusufu. The Leakey Foundation (USA) and generous grants from the North of England Zoological Society/Chester Zoo Nigeria Biodiversity Programme supported the field work. This is Gashaka publication no. 59.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Andrew Fowler & Volker Sommer

  2. Gashaka Primate Project, PMB 08, Serti, Taraba, Nigeria

    Andrew Fowler & Volker Sommer

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Fowler, A., Sommer, V. Subsistence Technology of Nigerian Chimpanzees. Int J Primatol 28, 997–1023 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-007-9166-0

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