Kinship and Behavior in Wild Chimpanzees

野生黑猩猩的亲属关系和行为

• 批准号: 0215622
• 负责人: John Mitani
• 金额: $ 15.15万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-01 至 2007-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0215622&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Kinship; Behavior; Wild; Chimpanzees

This project investigates the effects of kinship on the behavior of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Kinship plays an important role in determining how animals and humans behave. Evolutionary theory predicts that genetically related animals will develop close affiliative ties through the process of kin selection. Empirical observations are often consistent with this prediction. Despite the match between theory and observation, the explanatory power of kin selection continues to be debated. While some question whether the effects of kin selection have been overestimated, others continue to show how kinship can be used to explain the evolution of several aspects of animal social behavior. This research will provide behavioral observations of chimpanzees living in an unusually large community at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. These observations will be combined with genealogical information derived from laboratory analyses of genetic markers from known individuals. Together, these data will be used to address five, unresolved questions regarding the impact of kinship on wild chimpanzee behavior and demography: (1) does kinship affect patterns of cooperation among male chimpanzees?, (2) do male and female chimpanzees associate non-randomly with their genetic relatives?, (3) do male chimpanzees share meat reciprocally with kin?, (4) are community males more closely related to each other than are females?, (5) do male chimpanzees use calls to recognize their genetic relatives? This project has broad theoretical, empirical, and practical significance. Theoretically, this research will contribute to the development of evolutionary models that are constructed to explain why animals behave in the way that they do. Empirically, this study will fill important gaps in our understanding of the behavior of our closest living relatives. Practically, research activities will help to safeguard one of the last vestiges of rainforest in East Africa; training and support of graduate students and Third World scientists will ensure that these conservation efforts are maintained in the future.

这个项目调查了亲属关系对野生黑猩猩（类人猿）行为的影响。亲属关系在决定动物和人类的行为方面起着重要作用。进化论预言，基因相关的动物会通过亲缘选择的过程发展出密切的亲缘关系。经验观察常常与这一预测相一致。尽管理论与观察相符，近亲选择的解释力仍在争论中。虽然有些人质疑亲属选择的影响是否被高估了，但其他人继续表明亲属关系如何可以用来解释动物社会行为的几个方面的进化。这项研究将对生活在乌干达Kibale国家公园Ngogo的一个异常大的社区中的黑猩猩进行行为观察。这些观察结果将与来自已知个体遗传标记的实验室分析得出的家谱信息相结合。这些数据将用于解决五个尚未解决的关于亲属关系对野生黑猩猩行为和人口统计学影响的问题：(1)亲属关系是否影响雄性黑猩猩之间的合作模式？(2)雄性和雌性黑猩猩是否会非随机地与它们的遗传亲属联系？(3)雄性黑猩猩会与近亲分享肉吗？(4)群落中男性之间的亲缘关系是否比女性更密切？(5)雄性黑猩猩用叫声来识别它们的基因亲戚吗？本课题具有广泛的理论意义、实证意义和现实意义。从理论上讲，这项研究将有助于进化模型的发展，这些模型被用来解释为什么动物会有这样的行为方式。从经验上看，这项研究将填补我们对近亲行为理解的重要空白。实际上，研究活动将有助于保护东非最后的雨林遗迹之一；对研究生和第三世界科学家的培训和支持将确保这些保护工作在未来得以维持。