Kinship and Behavior in Wild Chimpanzees

这个项目调查了血缘关系对野生黑猩猩(泛黑猩猩)行为的影响。亲属关系在决定动物和人类的行为方式方面发挥着重要作用。进化论预测，遗传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。经验观察通常与这一预测相一致。尽管理论和观察之间存在匹配，但亲属选择的解释力仍在争论中。虽然一些人质疑亲属选择的影响是否被高估了，但另一些人继续表明，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。这项研究将提供生活在乌干达基巴莱国家公园Ngogo一个异常大的社区中的黑猩猩的行为观察。这些观察结果将与实验室对已知个体的遗传标记分析得出的系谱信息结合起来。这些数据将被用来解决关于血缘关系对野生黑猩猩行为和人口学的影响的五个悬而未决的问题：(1)血缘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非随机地与它们的遗传亲属建立联系？(3)雄性黑猩猩是否与亲属相互分享肉类？(4)雄性黑猩猩之间的亲缘关系是否比雌性更密切？(5)雄性黑猩猩是否会通过叫声来识别它们的遗传亲戚？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，这些模型被构建来解释动物为什么会这样做。从经验上讲，这项研究将填补我们对在世近亲行为理解方面的重要空白。实际上，研究活动将有助于保护东非最后的热带雨林之一；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努力在未来得到保持。

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.