Coexistence and co-evolution of the great apes and humans in the African tropical forest

研究结果该项目旨在通过对影响大猩猩(大猩猩和黑猩猩)和人类(狩猎-采集)在原始人类进化的热带森林中共生的环境因素的比较分析，阐明它们的共存和社会进化。我们监测了气候和食物供应的季节和年度变化，并在两个研究地点(加蓬的Moukalaba-Doudou国家公园和刚果民主共和国的Kahuzi-Biega国家公园)对猿类和人类进行了调查，这两个地点在过去的冰川时期都被视为避难林。收集了大猩猩和黑猩猩习惯化或半习惯化群体的森林利用和活动模式的数据，并分析了它们的饮食和食物条件。我们的结果表明，大猩猩、黑猩猩和人类在保持相似的食物偏好的同时，发展了不同的觅食策略。大猩猩分布在SIMI…的不同栖息地密度更大。它们的饮食随着食物的可获得性而变化很大，但不同栖息地的范围大小是恒定的。相比之下，黑猩猩往往会根据水果的可获得性改变联想模式和范围大小。狩猎-采集者使用基于食物共享系统的中央觅食策略。我们最近的发现表明，栖息在低地热带森林中的大猩猩的觅食策略介于黑猩猩和栖息在山地森林中的大猩猩之间。它们倾向于将特定区域重新用于觅食和筑巢，这可能是因为它们作为食果性黑猩猩具有高度的多样性和丰富的果实，而它们则周期性地将活动范围转变为食叶性大猩猩。这些观察结果有力地表明，在共处条件下，物种间和物种内部的资源冲突是推动原始人社会进化的主要因素。基于这一观点，我们将从2007年开始启动一个新的项目，名为《进化人类学关于类人猿和人类的冲突和解决》，作为科学研究的大援助(S)。较少

RESEARCH RESULTSOur project aims to clarify the coexistence and social evolution of the great apes (gorillas and chimpanzees) and humans (hunter-gatherers), through comparative analysis of environmental factors influencing their sympatry in the tropical forests where the ancestral hominin evolved. We have monitored seasonal and annual changes in climate and food availability and conducted surveys on the apes and humans in the two study sites (Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DRC), both of which are regarded as refuge forests during the past glacial periods. Data on utilization of forests and ranging patterns of habituated or semi-habituated groups of gorillas and chimpanzees were collected and analyzed in relation to their diet and food conditions. Our results suggest that gorillas, chimpanzees and humans have developed different foraging strategies while keeping the similar food preference. Gorillas are distributed in different habitats at the simi … More lar density. Their diet is varied drastically with food availability, but range size is constant across habitats. By contrast, chimpanzees tend to change association patterns and range size according to fruit availability. Hunter-gatherers use the central foraging strategies based on food sharing system. Our recent findings suggest that the foraging strategy of gorillas inhabiting the lowland tropical forest is intermediate between chimpanzees and gorillas inhabiting the montane forest. They tend to reuse the particular areas for feeding and nesting possibly due to high diversity and abundance of fruits as frugivorous chimpanzees, while they periodically shift their range as folivorous gorillas. These observations strongly suggest that inter-and intra-specific conflicts on resources constitute major factors promoting hominin social evolution under the sympatric conditions. Based on this view point, we will start a new project entitled "Evolutionary anthropology on conflicts and resolution of the great apes and humans" as a Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) from 2007. Less