Maternal effects on the development of vocal communication in wild chimpanzees
Aisha C. Bründl,
Cédric Girard-Buttoz,
Tatiana Bortolato,
Liran Samuni,
Mathilde Grampp,
Therese Löhrich,
Patrick Tkaczynski,
Roman M. Wittig,
Catherine Crockford
Affiliations
Aisha C. Bründl
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Corresponding author
Cédric Girard-Buttoz
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; The Great Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, Bron, 69675 Lyon, France
Tatiana Bortolato
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; The Great Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, Bron, 69675 Lyon, France
Liran Samuni
Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Mathilde Grampp
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; The Great Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, Bron, 69675 Lyon, France
Therese Löhrich
Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms, Robert Koch Institute, Seestraße 10, Berlin 13353, Germany; World Wide Fund for Nature, Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas, Bangui BP 1053, Central African Republic; Veterinary Group Practice Heeslingen, Stader Straße 5, 27404 Heeslingen, Germany
Patrick Tkaczynski
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L33AF, UK
Roman M. Wittig
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Catherine Crockford
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; The Great Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, Bron, 69675 Lyon, France; Corresponding author
Summary: Early-life experiences, such as maternal care received, influence adult social integration and survival. We examine what changes to social behavior through ontogeny lead to these lifelong effects, particularly whether early-life maternal environment impacts the development of social communication. Chimpanzees experience prolonged social communication development. Focusing on a central communicative trait, the “pant-hoot” contact call used to solicit social engagement, we collected cross-sectional data on wild chimpanzees (52 immatures and 36 mothers). We assessed early-life socioecological impacts on pant-hoot rates across development, specifically: mothers’ gregariousness, age, pant-hoot rates and dominance rank, maternal loss, and food availability, controlling for current maternal effects. We found that early-life maternal gregariousness correlated positively with offspring pant-hoot rates, while maternal loss led to reduced pant-hoot rates across development. Males had steeper developmental trajectories in pant-hoot rates than females. We demonstrate the impact of maternal effects on developmental trajectories of a rarely investigated social trait, vocal production.
