Influence of inter-individual distance on grooming interaction in captive chimpanzees and bonobos

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1 Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan
2 Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
3 Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.1849v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Animal Behavior, Zoology
Keywords
Grooming, Proximity, Pan species, Social tolerance
Copyright
© 2016 Allanic et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Allanic M, Hirata S, Hayashi M, Matsuzawa T. 2016. Influence of inter-individual distance on grooming interaction in captive chimpanzees and bonobos. PeerJ Preprints 4:e1849v1

Abstract

The spatial organization of a set of individuals may reflect the underlying relationships between them. This study investigated whether inter-individual distance, or the proximity between a pair of individuals, predicts the patterns of grooming interactions. The subjects were twelve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes; M = 2, F = 10; age: mean = 34.8, range = 25-45) and six bonobos (Pan paniscus; M = 2, F = 4; age: mean = 27.3, range = 13-44) studied since September 2015 and living at Kumamoto Sanctuary (Japan). Proximity, time in contact, and time at less than one meter of all group members were recorded using focal animal sampling. The full temporal organization of grooming patterns was analyzed after ad libitum video records of the interactions. A pair of individuals that spends more time in close proximity was predicted to (i) show a shorter latency to approach before the onset of grooming, (ii) groom sensitive body parts (e.g. face and genitals) more often, and (iii) take turns in grooming more frequently than two individuals that stay far from each other. The results may suggest species-specific or relationship-dependent social tolerance, reflected in both inter-individual distance and patterns of grooming.

Author Comment

This is an abstract which has been accepted for the "Chimpanzees in Context" symposium.