Seed Reingestion in Savannah Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Fongoli,Senegal

Coprophagy is common in captive primates but has also been reported in the wild. For example, wild apes extract and reingest items from faeces. We term this behavior seed reingestion because the dung matrix is not consumed. We assessed the importance of seed reingestion in a population of savannah chimpanzees at Fongoli, southeastern Senegal, one of the hottest and driest areas of the species’ range, where chimpanzees have a relatively narrow dietary repertoire. We observed habituated chimpanzees on 122 d during 8 mo in 2005 and 2006, employing both focal subject and scan sampling of identified individuals for 1278 h of data collection. Chimpanzees reingested seeds of 2 species: Parkia biglobosa and Adansonia digitata. Both seed species have a hard protective shell, and the embryos are rich in proteins and lipids. Chimpanzees initially ate the fruit matrix pulp and swallowed intact seeds before reingesting and chewing/destroying seeds. Seed reingestion accounted for almost 2% of feeding time. We suggest that at Fongoli this behavior may be an adaptive strategy to maximize food intake, by softening the seed’s shell and making the seed’s content more accessible.