Eco-ethology of West-African Chimpanzees and Other Primates

1.在本研究期间，我们在几内亚Bossou的主要研究区域发现了以下三个新的野生黑猩猩使用工具的例子：1）藻类挖掘;黑猩猩使用大约50厘米长的棍子来挖掘和摄取漂浮在池塘中的藻类（池塘浮渣）。Ghimpanzees选择薄，轻草或茎蕨类植物作为棍棒，他们删除阻碍侧枝之前，利用他们。他们一只手拿着它们，尽可能地把加工好的棍子从池塘边伸出来，去舀藻类。2)树叶垫：黑猩猩在地面上排列几片大树叶，当地面潮湿时坐在上面，以避免淋湿。3)捕白蚁;黑猩猩在撬开白蚁丘的表面后，将细草茎插入白蚁丘的洞里。白蚁会咬到侵入的茎干，从而被从土丘中抬出来，随后被缩回茎干的黑猩猩吃掉。在埃塞俄比亚的贡贝， 关于我们 非洲，但在西非很少见到。我们的观察藻类铲和叶垫构成了有史以来第一次报告，这些新发现的工具在野生黑猩猩。这些发现导致了一种说法，即在所有研究过的野生群落中，博苏的黑猩猩拥有最多的工具。到目前为止，在野生黑猩猩中总共观察到27种工具，其中18种可以在Bossou看到。我们现在正在进行生态因素分析，以解释为什么博苏的黑猩猩使用如此多的工具。对研究场地进行了实地测量，制作了调查图，为研究提供了依据。调查了博苏的植物群、主要水果的可利用性及其季节变化。这些数据被用来分析水果供应的季节性变化和工具使用频率之间的相关性。后一项分析现在开始表明，黑猩猩在水果短缺期间经常使用工具来获得否则无法获得的食物。我们观察到一个10.5岁的女性分娩。这一事实沿着累积的种群动态数据表明，在博苏的野生黑猩猩中，产次的年龄较低，出生间隔较短，比以前在东非报道的要短。少

1. During this study period, we found the following three new examples of tool use among wild chimpanzees at the main study area of Bossou, Guinea : l) Algae-scooping ; Chimpanzees use sticks approximately 50 cm long to scoop and ingest algae (pond scum) floating in ponds. Ghimpanzees select thin, light grasses or stems of ferns as sticks, and they remove hampering side-branches before utilizing them. Holding them in one hand, they extend the processed sticks as far as possible from the edge of ponds to scoop algae. 2) Leaf-cushion ; Chimpanzees arrange several large leaves on the ground and sit on them when the ground is moist in order to avoid getting wet. 3) Termite-fishing ; Chimpanzees insert thin stems of grasses into holes of termite mounds after breaking open the surface of the latter. Termites bite the intruding stems, and are thus lifted out of the mounds and subsequently eaten by chimpanzees retracting the stems. Termite, -fishing is widespread among chimpanzees in Gombe, Ea … More st Africa, but it has rarely been seen in West Africa. Our observations of Algae-scooping and Leaf-cushion constitute the first ever reports of these newly-found tools among wild chimpanzees. These discoveries lead to a claim that chimpanzees at Bossou have the largest repertoire of tools among all wild communities studied. There have so far been a total of 27 tools observed among wild chimpanzees, 18 of which can be seen at Bossou. We are now conducting an analysis of ecological factors to explain why chimpanzees at Bossou use such a large number of tools.2. We measured the study site and made a survey map for the basis of research. We also investigated the flora of Bossou, the availability of main fruits, and their seasonal changes. This data was used to analyze the correlation between seasonal changes in fruit availability and the frequency of tool use. The latter analysis is now beginning to indicate that chimpanzees frequently use tools during fruit scarcity to gain access to foods that could not be acquired otherwise.3. We observed parturition in a l0.5-year-old female. This fact along with accumulated data on population dynamics demonstrate that in wild chimpanzees at Bossou, the age of primiparity is lower and the inter-birth interval shorter than previously reported from East Africa. Less