Share your sweets: Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan paniscus) willingness to share highly attractive, monopolizable food sources

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All over the world, humans (Homo sapiens) display resource-sharing behavior, and common patterns of sharing seem to exist across cultures. Humans are not the only primates to share, and observations from the wild have long documented food sharing behavior in our closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). However, few controlled studies have been made in which groups of Pan are introduced to food items that may be shared or monopolized by a first food possessor, and very few studies have examined what happens to these sharing patterns if the food in question is a highly attractive, monopolizable food source. The one study to date to include food quality as the independent variable used different types of food as high- and low-value items, making differences in food divisibility and size potentially confounding factors. It was the aim of the present study to examine the sharing behavior of groups of captive chimpanzees and bonobos when introducing the same type of food (branches) manipulated to be of 2 different degrees of desirability (with or without syrup). Results showed that the large majority of food transfers in both species came about as sharing in which group members were allowed to cofeed or remove food from the stock of the food possessor, and the introduction of high-value food resulted in more sharing, not less. Food sharing behavior differed between species in that chimpanzees displayed significantly more begging behavior than bonobos. Bonobos, instead, engaged in sexual invitations, which the chimpanzees never did.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Comparative Psychology
Volume129
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)218-228
Number of pages11
ISSN0735-7036
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Accepted taking, Bonobo food sharing, Chimpanzee food sharing, Food possession, High- and low-value food

ID: 188161580