Publication Date

Summer 6-6-2023

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigate variables that promote and constrain female-female social relationships in chimpanzees, a species where females disperse at sexual maturity, reside primarily among non-kin as adults, and where fission fusion social structure can reveal how female social behavior responds to different social contexts. I conducted my research using a combination of detailed behavioural data that I collected during a one-year field season (2019-2020) and long-term data (2010-2019) collected by the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. I show that female chimpanzees form stable, differentiated social relationships, which reflect active preferences and variation in social tolerance (Chapter 2); females leverage these selectively tolerant relationships to support cooperation in aggressive coalition formation (Chapter 3); and the presence of adult males constrains opportunities for female-female social interaction (Chapter 4). Together these findings provide new comparative data that inform hypotheses about the evolution of social relationships among female primates, including in humans.

Keywords

Pan troglodytes, evolutionary anthropology, socioecology, social bonds, coalitions, sexual conflict

Project Sponsors

Leakey Foundation, Wenner Gren Foundation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Sigma Xi, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, University of New Mexico

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Evolutionary Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Melissa Emery Thompson

Second Committee Member

Martin Muller

Third Committee Member

Sherry Nelson

Fourth Committee Member

Lauren Brent

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