Group dominance increases territory size and reduces neighbour pressure in wild chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: Territorial social species, including humans, compete between groups over key resources. This between-group competition has evolutionary implications on adaptations like in-group cooperation even with non-kin. An emergent property of between-group competition is group dominance. Mechanisms of group dominance in wild animal populations are difficult to study, as they require long-term data on several groups within a population. Here, using long-term data on four neighbouring groups of wild western chimpanzees, we test the hypothesis that group dominance impacts the costs and benefits of between-group competition, measured by territory size and the pressure exerted by neighbouring groups. Larger groups had larger territories and suffered less neighbour pressure compared with smaller groups.

SUBMITTER: Lemoine S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7277268 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature