Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity

Citation

Kalan AK, Kulik L, Arandjelovic M, Boesch C, Haas F, Dieguez P, Barratt CD, Abwe EE, Agbor A, Angedakin S, Aubert F, Ayuk Ayimisin E, Bailey E, Bessone M & Jeffery KJ (2020) Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity. Nature Communications, 11, Art. No.: 4451. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18176-3

Abstract
Large brains and behavioural innovation are positively-correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic divergence and speciation. Here, using a dataset of 144 wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities, we show that chimpanzees exhibit greater behavioural diversity in environments with more variability – in both recent and historical timescales. Notably, distance from Pleistocene forest refugia is associated with the presence of a larger number of behavioural traits, including both tool and non-tool use behaviours. Since more than half of the behaviours investigated are also likely to be cultural, we suggest that environmental variability was a critical evolutionary force promoting the behavioural, as well as cultural diversification of great apes.

Keywords
adaptive flexibility; Pan troglodytes; forest refuge hypothesis; savannah hypothesis; seasonality; variability selection

Notes
Additional co-authors: Gregory Brazzola, Valentine Ebua Buh, Rebecca Chancellor, Heather Cohen, Charlotte Coupland, Bryan Curran, Emmanuel Danquah, Tobias Deschner, Dervla Dowd, Manasseh Eno-Nku, J. Michael Fay, Annemarie Goedmakers, Anne-Céline Granjon, Josephine Head, Daniela Hedwig, Veerle Hermans, Sorrel Jones, Jessica Junker, Parag Kadam, Mohamed Kambi, Ivonne Kienast, Deo Kujirakwinja, Kevin E. Langergraber, Juan Lapuente, Bradley Larson, Kevin C. Lee, Vera Leinert, Manuel Llana, Sergio Marrocoli, Amelia C. Meier, Bethan Morgan, David Morgan, Emily Neil, Sonia Nicholl, Emmanuelle Normand, Lucy Jayne Ormsby, Liliana Pacheco, Alex Piel, Jodie Preece, Martha M. Robbins, Aaron Rundus, Crickette Sanz, Volker Sommer, Fiona Stewart, Nikki Tagg, Claudio Tennie, Virginie Vergnes, Adam Welsh, Erin G. Wessling, Jacob Willie, Roman M. Wittig, Yisa Ginath Yuh, Klaus Zuberbühler, Hjalmar S. Kühl

Journal
Nature Communications: Volume 11

People

Ms Kathryn Jeffery

Research Fellow, Biological and Environmental Sciences