Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity

photo: Liran Samuni

We are so super proud to announce the publication of our latest PanAf paper "Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity" We hope it helps spur the call-to-action for conserving chimps and their behaviours across their range! 

Abstract:
Chimpanzees possess a large number of behavioral and cultural traits among non-human species. The ‘disturbance hypothesis’ predicts that human impact depletes resources and disrupts social learning processes necessary for behavioral and cultural transmission. We used an unprecedented data set of 144 chimpanzee communities, with information on 31 behaviors, to show that chimpanzees inhabiting areas with high human impact have a mean probability of occurrence reduced by 88%, across all behaviors, compared to low impact areas. This behavioral diversity loss was evident irrespective of the grouping or categorization of behaviors. Therefore, human impact may not only be associated with the loss of populations and genetic diversity, but also affects how animals behave. Our results support the view that ‘culturally significant units’ should be integrated into wildlife conservation.

Paper: 
Kühl HS, Boesch C, Kulik L, Haas F, Arandjelovic M, Dieguez P, Bocksberger G, McElreath MB, Agbor A, Angedakin S, Ayimisin EA, Bailey E, Barubiyo D, Bessone M, Brazzola G, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Coupland C, Danquah E, Deschner T, Diotoh O, Dowd D, Dunn A, Egbe VE, Eshuis H, Fernandez Rumen, Ginath Y, Goedmakers A, Granjon AC, Head J, Hedwig D, Hermans V, Imong I, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Junker J, Kadam P, Kambere M, Kambi M, Kienast I, Kujirakwinja D, Langergraber K, Lapuente J, Larson B, Lee K, Leinert V, Llana M, Maretti G, Marrocoli S, Mbi TJ, Meier AC, Morgan B, Morgan D, Mulindahabi F, Murai M, Neil E, Niyigaba P, Ormsby LJ, Pacheco L, Piel A, Preece J, Regnaut S, Rundus A, Sanz C, van Schijndel J, Sommer V, Stewart F, Tagg N, Vendras E, Vergnes V, Welsh A, Wessling EG, Willie J, Wittig RM, Yurkiw K, Zuberbuehler K, Kalan AK (2019) Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aau4532


Press: 

• We Are Destroying Chimpanzee Cultures (Ed Yong, The Atlantic)
• Humans are wiping out chimpanzee cultures (Gretchen Vogel, Science magazine)
• Human encroachment threatens chimpanzee culture (Sujata Gupta, Science News)
• Dr. Ammie Kalan on the BBC live!
• Chimps varied ‘culture’ matters for conservation, study says (Christina Larson, Associated Press)
• MPI Press Release English
• MPI Press Release Deutsch
• ...and more

Video Abstract: