The Development and Persistence of Adult Female Social Relationships in Wild Eastern Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).
Open Access DepositedA growing body of literature demonstrates that social bonds enhance adult fitness in a range of species (reviewed in Snyder-Mackler et al. 2020). Despite this relationship, relatively little is known about how early life experiences impact bond formation. This study tests whether female social relationships persist across development and into adulthood in wild female eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. A previous study found that immature male bonds persisted (Bray et al. 2021). However, I predicted female intersexual and intersexual relationships will not persist across life history stages because they are characterized by female-biased dispersal. I found mixed support for this prediction using 17 years of association data. Female-male bonds did not persist, but female bonds did persist into early adulthood. Future studies should investigate if early female bonds relate to dispersal decisions, social integration, and/or fitness.
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