Social Cliques and Old Boys Clubs in Wild Chimpanzees

We humans are not as far removed from our primate cousins as we’d like to think.  A recently published paper in my favorite journal (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology) shows that there are hidden complexities to the food signalling calls of wild chimpanzees that mirror the actions taken by members of our species.

Just what is a food signalling call?

It’s any vocalization or behavior that serves to communicate to others that a food source has been found…and if you’re a hungry human or any other animal, you’ve got to decide carefully with whom you’d like to share it.

As humans, we’re not likely to send out a food-sharing call to just anyone who happens to be within ear shot.  If we’ve found something great, chances are we’re only interested in sharing with ‘socially important individuals’, people with whom we are closely associated.  After all, if you do something nice for members of your immediate social group, it strengthens the group bond and should translate into some reciprocal assistance at a later time.  Reminiscent of those cliques you experienced in high school, there is also a form of social rejection of non-members.  If you’re not a part of the club, you aren’t invited to take part in the ‘members only’ benefits…whatever they may be.

It turns out that in wild chimpanzees the same logic applies.  Males form stable, long-term social relationships with other males that are extremely important for day to day functions like group defense, territory establishment and social grooming.  Over six hundred hours of behavioral observations of these animals in Ugandan tropical forests confirmed that males sometimes produce special ‘rough grunt’ food calls about the quality of a food source.  However, they ONLY produce those calls if another ‘socially important’ male is nearby.  If the audience consistsof lower ranking individuals or even of oestrous (reproductive) females, males do not produce any rough grunt vocalizations.

There you have it:  Social cliques and old boys clubs are alive and well in primate orders other than our own!

Cited: Slocombe, K. E. et al.  June, 2010. Production of food-associated calls in wild male chimpanzees is dependent on the composition of the audience. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.

Congrats to James Dunbar – his next book will be coming out soon!

Jamie is the second friend of mine to run a successful Kickstarter campaign, the first being Jessica Oreck for her film ‘Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo‘.

I’m so happy for both of them, they are uniquely talented and doing amazing, wonderful work!

Jamie’s campaign is still active for a few more weeks, please support him in his efforts

Cool Biology Job for August 25, 2010

The Department of Earth Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), Canada, is looking for a post-doctoral candidate in the area of sandstone geology.  Do you have a strong background in sandstone diagenesis and/or stable isotope geochemistry?  This one could be for you.  The position is initially available for one year with a possible extension for a second.

MUN is located in St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador which is a quiet, beautiful city on the Atlantic Ocean.

For more information contact Dr. Karem Azmy, Associate Professor: kazmy@mun.ca.