Tool-assisted predation on a squirrel by a female chimpanzee in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania

@article{Huffman2006ToolassistedPO,
  title={Tool-assisted predation on a squirrel by a female chimpanzee in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania},
  author={Michael Alan Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu Kalunde},
  journal={Primates},
  year={2006},
  volume={34},
  pages={93-98}
}
A 12-year-old female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) of M-Group in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania was seen to rouse, capture, and eat a squirrel hiding in the narrow hole of a tree. The kill was aided by the use of a sturdy tool modified from a branch of the same tree. This appears to be the first reported case for chimpanzees, or any other nonhuman primate, of tool-use that directly led to the capture of a mammalian prey species. This behavior is discussed in relation… 
View on Springer
35 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
2
Background Citations
8
Methods Citations
2

Figures from this paper

35 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Behavioral ecology of savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) with respect to insectivory at Fongoli, Senegal
In this dissertation I examine the behavioral ecology of savanna chimpanzees in Senegal. I test hypotheses related to the effects of the environment on the diet of the chimpanzees at Fongoli,…
Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural History and Culture at Mahale
Chimpanzees are humanity's closest living relations and are of enduring interest to a range of sciences, from anthropology to zoology. In the West, many know of the pioneering work of Jane Goodall,…
Preliminary report on predatory behavior and meat sharing in tschego chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Ndoki forest, northern Congo
Predatory behavior ofPan t. troglodytes in the Ndoki Forest was confirmed by both direct observation and fecal evidence. Eight out of 214 fecal samples (3.7%), collected during 16 months, contained…
Savanna Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, Hunt with Tools
TLDR
The first account of habitual tool use during vertebrate hunting by nonhumans is reported, at the Fongoli site in Senegal, and it is reported that females and immature chimpanzees exhibited this behavior more frequently than adult males.
Predation on mammals by the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
TLDR
It is suggested that the size or demographic trend of a chimpanzee unit-group necessarily influences its hunting frequency as well as its prey profile, and factors which bring these males together into a party strongly affect the actual hunting and kill rates.
Long-Term Field Studies of Chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania
Chimpanzee research in the Mahale Mountains, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, began in 1965. Although the Mahale Mountains did not initially have official protected status,…
Vertebrate Predation and Food-Sharing in Cebus and Pan
  • Lisa M. Rose
  • Biology
    International Journal of Primatology
  • 2004
TLDR
It is estimated that the average capuchin group kills 43–50 squirrels annually, mostly during the dry season, and various ecological and social factors that may promote vertebrate predation in Pan and Cebus are discussed.
POPULATION DENSITIES OF DIURNAL MAMMALS SYMPATRIC WITH THE CHIMPANZEES OF THE MAHALE MOUNTAINS, TANZANIA: COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CENSUS DATA OF 1996 AND 2000
TLDR
Results show that predation pressure as a whole including hunts by chimpanzees did not seem to exceed population growth rates of the prey mammals, with the exclusion of blue monkeys and the possible exception of bushbucks, during the 1996-2000 period at Mahale.
Heliosciurus rufobrachium (Rodentia: Sciuridae)
TLDR
H. rufobrachium is a medium-sized diurnally adapted tree squirrel occurring at ground-level to upper heights of the canopy of mature forests, Adapted to an arboreal life, its frugivorous diet makes it a seed disperser for forest plants.
New evidence on the tool-assisted hunting exhibited by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in a savannah habitat at Fongoli, Sénégal
TLDR
It is argued that social tolerance at Fongoli, along with the tool-assisted hunting method, permits individuals other than adult males to capture and retain control of prey, which is uncommon for chimpanzees, and asserted that tool- assisted hunting could have similarly been important for early hominins.
...
1
2
3
4
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 28 REFERENCES
Predatory behavior among wild chimpanzees of the mahale mountains
TLDR
Predatory behavior of Mahale chimpanzees seems more opportunistic and primitive than has ever been observed in the Gombe National Park in terms of capture technique, size of prey, co-operation in hunting, sexual difference in capture frequency, degree of consumption and extent of meat sharing.
Natural Diet of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Long-Term Record from the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania
All the plant and anin1al foods recorded to be eaten by wild chimpanzees ofKasoje in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania between 1965 and 1981 are listed up together with some additional miscellaneous…
The ant-gathering behaviour by the use of tools among wild chimpanzees of the Mahali Mountains
TLDR
Ant-gathering was seen during the time when chimpanzees usually take a rest between the two intensive feeding periods of a day, implying that ant-g gathering by use of tools is a kind of luxury.
Natural history of a tool-using behavior by wild chimpanzees in feeding upon wood-boring ants
Various aspects of the tool-using behavior of the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania are described: natural history of the prey, cognitive mapping, selection of tool materials, types of…
Chimpanzee predation in the Mahale mountains from August 1979 to May 1982
TLDR
Apparent local difference in the predatory behavior between Mahale and Combe chimpanzees (in Mahale, females hunt more frequently, and blue duiker is the most frequent prey) can be understood in terms of the difference either in the observation methods or in the faunal diversity and density.
Rates of predation on mammals by gombe chimpanzees, 1972–1975
TLDR
Present data suggest that chimpanzees in Gombe and Tai National Park, Ivory Coast, prey on mammals at rates higher than other populations.
Sex and group differences in feeding on animals by wild chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania
Sex differences in animal prey intake were revealed by fecal analysis among wild chimpanzees of the large-sized M-group (ca. 100 members) in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania: prime adult…
Possible causes of sex differences in the use of natural hammers by wild chimpanzees
TLDR
The analysis of 5 hypotheses stresses the role of the difference of sociability and sexual dimorphism between the sexes, both negatively affecting the nut-cracking techniques and performance of the adult males, on the evolution of the division of labor and food-sharing in the chimpanzee and in early hominids.
Evidence of tool-use by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) for digging out a bee-nest in the Kahuzi-biega national park, Zaïre
Two sticks were found near a broken bee-nest ofMeliplebeia tanganyikae aff.nigritaAlfken in the Mt. Kahuzi region of Zaïre, and were thought to have been used by a chimpanzee or perhaps several…
The Predatory Behavior of Wild Chimpanzees
Geza Teleki has spent two years observing wild chimpanzees at very close quarters in the Gombe National Park of Tanzania. He has compiled this report on predatory behavior, based in part upon a…
...
1
2
3
...