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

iScience (Oct 2022)

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

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 25, no. 10
p. 105152

Abstract

Read online

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.

Published in iScience

ISSN: 2589-0042 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.cell.com/iscience/home

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords