Feeding Competition and Agonistic Relationships Among Bwindi <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gorilla beringei</Emphasis> |
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Authors: | Martha M Robbins |
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Institution: | (1) Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany |
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Abstract: | Testing predictions of socioecological models, specifically that the types of feeding competition and social relationships
female primates exhibit are strongly influenced by the distribution, density, and quality of food resources, requires studies
of closely related populations of subjects living under different ecological conditions. I examined feeding competition and
the resulting female social relationships in mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, which has ecological conditions distinctive from those where other gorilla
populations live. I observed 1 group of gorillas for 29 mo to examine the proportion of time spent foraging on fruit, the
relationship between patch size and occupancy patterns of fruit trees, and agonistic interactions. Patch occupancy time while foraging in fruit trees decreased with increasing number of gorillas in a tree and decreasing
tree size, suggesting that fruit trees represent limiting patches and can lead to intragroup scramble competition. Gorillas
exhibited higher levels of aggression while feeding on fruit versus other food resources, which indicates intragroup contest
competition. I observed a linear dominance hierarchy with no bidirectionality via displacements, and a similar hierarchy via
aggression, though a notable proportion of the dyads contained 2-way interactions. However, most aggression was of low intensity
(vocalizations) and the recipient typically ignored it. Despite differences in ecological conditions and diet between the
Virunga Volcanoes and Bwindi, agonistic relationships among females are largely similar in the 2 populations and are best
characterized as dispersal individualistic. |
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Keywords: | dominance rank feeding competition mountain gorilla social relationships |
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