David P Watts
Biographic Data
| ID | 83828 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David P Watts |
| GIVEN NAMES | David P |
| FAMILY NAME | Watts |
| SIGNATURE | WATTS D P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6603-2230 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 231 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1967 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Changes in Grooming Networks Among Male Chimpanzees Preceding a Permanent Community Fission at Ngogo
Chimpanzees form social communities with memberships that change only with births, deaths, and female emigrations or immigrations and that are characterized by high fission‐fusion dynamics. Relations between neighboring communities are intensely hostile, and males in the same community cooperate in potentially lethal intercommunity aggression. Permanent community fissions sometimes occur, but genetic data indicate that these are rare, and only a …
Investigating infant feeding development in wild chimpanzees using stable isotopes of naturally shed hair
Measuring the relative contributions of milk and non‐milk foods in the diets of primate infants is difficult from observations. Stable carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotopes in hair can be used to physiologically track infant feeding through development, but few wild studies have done so, likely due to the difficulty in collecting hair non‐invasively. We assessed infant feeding at different ages in wild chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) at …
Developmental and Sex‐Based Variation in Nest Building Among Wild Immature Chimpanzees
All great apes build nests. Nests in trees or on the ground provide apes with a safe and comfortable place to sleep and rest at night and during the day. Nest building is a necessary skill and form of tool use that individuals learn and practice early in life, but little is known about its development and about the factors affecting the expression of nest building in infancy. We studied the development of daytime nest building of 72 wild immature…
Removing snares is an effective conservation intervention: A case study involving chimpanzees
The use of chimpanzee‐modified faunal assemblages to investigate early hominin carnivory
Chimpanzees regularly hunt and consume prey smaller than themselves. It seems therefore likely that early hominins also consumed small vertebrate meat before they started using and producing stone tools. Research has focused on cut marks and large ungulates, but there is a small body of work that has investigated the range of bone modifications produced on small prey by chimpanzee mastication that, by analogy, can be used to identify carnivory in…
White sclera is present in chimpanzees and other mammals
Male chimpanzee sexual coercion and mating success at Ngogo
Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) have a complex mating system in which both sexes use multiple tactics. Most copulations occur in group contexts, and high‐ranking males can gain high mating and reproductive success, but females typically mate with multiple males and the potential for sperm competition is high. Also, male‐female dyads sometimes form temporary exclusive mating associations (consortships). Male aggression to receptive females is comm…
Whom Do Primate Names Honor? Rethinking Primate Eponyms
Lethal Coalitionary Aggression Associated with a Community Fission in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Responses to dead and dying conspecifics and heterospecifics by wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
Meat eating by nonhuman primates: A review and synthesis
Premasticated food transfer by wild chimpanzee mothers with their infants: Effects of maternal parity, infant age and sex, and food properties
A novel fecal stable isotope approach to determine the timing of age‐related feeding transitions in wild infant chimpanzees
Our results resemble the stable isotope differences of human babies. This study contributes to a model of chimpanzee nutritional development required to understand early life history patterns in hominins
Favorable ecological circumstances promote life expectancy in chimpanzees similar to that of human hunter-gatherers
Production of grooming-associated sounds by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Ngogo: Variation, social learning, and possible functions
Ecological factors influencing habitat use by chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Although numerous ecological and social factors influence range use in vertebrates, the general assumption is that ranging patterns typically accord with principles of optimal foraging theory. However, given temporal variability in resource abundance, animals can more easily meet nutritional needs at some times than at others. For species in which sociality is particularly important for fitness, such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other gro…
Remembering Jerry Lwanga: A Perspective from His Colleagues
Mating behavior of adolescent male chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Hunting and Prey Switching by Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo
Variability in Population Density Is Paralleled by Large Differences in Foraging Efficiency in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts
AVPR1A Variation in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Population Differences and Association with Behavioral Style
Chimpanzee‐red colobus encounter rates show a red colobus population decline associated with predation by chimpanzees at Ngogo
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) hunt various primates, but concentrate on red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus spp.) wherever the two species are sympatric. The extraordinarily large Ngogo chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, preys heavily on the local population of red colobus (P. tephrosceles). Census data showed a steep decline in this population in the center of the chimpanzees' home range between 1975 and 2007 [Lwanga et al., 201…
Generation times in wild chimpanzees and gorillas suggest earlier divergence times in great ape and human evolution
Fossils and molecular data are two independent sources of information that should in principle provide consistent inferences of when evolutionary lineages diverged. Here we use an alternative approach to genetic inference of species split times in recent human and ape evolution that is independent of the fossil record. We first use genetic parentage information on a large number of wild chimpanzees and mountain gorillas to directly infer their av…
Diet of chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, 2. temporal variation and fallback foods
Highly frugivorous primates like chimpanzees ( Pan trogolodytes ) must contend with temporal variation in food abundance and quality by tracking fruit crops and relying more on alternative foods, some of them fallbacks, when fruit is scarce. We used behavioral data from 122 months between 1995 and 2009 plus 12 years of phenology records to investigate temporal dietary variation and use of fallback foods by chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Pa…
Hunting Behavior of Chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Comparative Feeding Ecology of Two Communities of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in Kibale National Park, Uganda
General Gregariousness and Specific Social Preferences among Wild Chimpanzees
Ecology of gorillas and its relation to female transfer in mountain gorillas
Seasonality in the Ecology and Life Histories of Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)
Favorable ecological circumstances promote life expectancy in chimpanzees similar to that of human hunter-gatherers
A novel fecal stable isotope approach to determine the timing of age‐related feeding transitions in wild infant chimpanzees
Our results resemble the stable isotope differences of human babies. This study contributes to a model of chimpanzee nutritional development required to understand early life history patterns in hominins
Scavenging by chimpanzees at Ngogo and the relevance of chimpanzee scavenging to early hominin behavioral ecology
Tool Use by Chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Intracommunity Coalitionary Killing of an Adult Male Chimpanzee at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Conflict Resolution in Chimpanzees and the Valuable-relationships Hypothesis
Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados 1627 to 1800
Premasticated food transfer by wild chimpanzee mothers with their infants: Effects of maternal parity, infant age and sex, and food properties
Whom Do Primate Names Honor? Rethinking Primate Eponyms
Hunting and Prey Switching by Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo
Variability in Population Density Is Paralleled by Large Differences in Foraging Efficiency in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Leptin, adiposity, and testosterone in captive male macaques
Leptin is considered to act as a signal relating somatic energetic status to the reproductive system. However, the nature of that signal and its relationship with male reproductive function across nonhuman primate species are unclear. We suggest that species-specific differences in leptin physiology may be related to the degree of environmental variation and variation in the importance of energy stores for male reproduction. In order to test the …
AVPR1A Variation in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Population Differences and Association with Behavioral Style
White sclera is present in chimpanzees and other mammals
Persistence and Change in the Vegetation of Oceanic Islands: An Example From Barbados, West Indies
Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados 1627 to 1800
Persistence and Change in the Vegetation of Oceanic Islands: An Example From Barbados, West Indies
Composition and variability of mountain gorilla diets in the Central Virungas
Data are presented here on the feeding ecology of wild mountain gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla beringei ) which were observed for approximately 2,400 hours over a 17‐month period in the Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda. Aspects of the relationship between the composition, diversity, and temporal consistency of the gorillas' diet and spatial and temporal variability in food distribution patterns are described. Mountain gorillas are folivores that sho…
Observations on the ontogeny of feeding behavior in mountain gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla beringei )
This report describes observations on the ontogeny of food choice in mountain gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla beringei ), made during a 17‐month field study of mountain gorilla feeding ecology in the Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda. Data are presented on the feeding behavior of two infants observed from birth to the age of 8 months and on older infants and juveniles. This information is compared with data on the composition and diversity of the diet…
Environmental influences on mountain gorilla time budgets
Data on the time budgets of mountain gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla beringei ) were collected during field studies in the Virunga Volcanoes region of Rwanda and Zaire. Focal sampling was used to determine the proportion of time that individuals of different age/sex classes spent in several mutually exclusive activity states. The gorillas spent the majority of daylight hours feeding; most of the rest of the day was devoted to resting, with little time…
Ant eating behavior of mountain gorillas
Infanticide in Mountain Gorillas: New Cases and a Reconsideration of the Evidence
Data on six cases of infanticide, one infanticide attempt, and one suspected infanticide in mountain gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla beringei ) are presented here for the first time. These and previously reported cases in the same population are analyzed in order to assess the circumstances and consequences of infanticide. Most infanticides occur when infants' mothers are not accompanied by their group's mature male (usually because he has died). Infa…
Threatened primates of Africa: The IUCN Red Data Book. By P. C. Lee, J. Thorback, and E. L. Bennett
Geophagia by mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei) in the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda
Ecology of gorillas and its relation to female transfer in mountain gorillas
Mountain gorilla reproduction and sexual behavior
Data on mountain gorilla reproductive behavior, demography, and sexual behavior are reviewed and compared with earlier reviews of reproduction by wild gorillas and with data on captive gorillas. Topics covered include maturation, female transfer patterns and reproductive histories, reproductive intervals, influences on fertility, infant mortality, sex ratios at birth, birth seasonality, copulatory behavior, and estrus cyclicity. Most of the resul…
Social relationships of immigrant and resident female mountain gorillas. I. Male‐female relationships
Adult males are important social partners for all females in mountain gorilla social groups, but male‐female relationships can vary in association with variation in female residence status, male age and mating status, and relatedness. Such variation occurred in a large group observed over a 3‐year period. All females associated and interacted affiliatively relatively often with a young silverback with whom all mated. Long‐term resident females al…
The influence of male mating tactics on habitat use in mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)
Social relationships of immigrant and resident female mountain gorillas, II: Relatedness, residence, and relationships between females
Female transfer is common in mountain gorillas, but most adult females reside with female relatives for at least some of their lives. In four mountain gorilla social groups, co‐resident relatives had higher rates of affiliative interaction and lower rates of aggressive interaction, and were more tolerant of each other, than non‐relatives. These differences were greater for maternal than for paternal relatives. Non‐relatives typically had few affi…
Comparative socio–ecology of gorillas
INTRODUCTION Great apes have remarkably diverse social systems. For example, only in gorillas do females live in stable, cohesive groups and associate permanently with males and do males show conditional dispersal. However, all apes show female dispersal from natal groups or home ranges and are nonfemale bonded ( sensu Wrangham, 1980). Female African great apes transfer directly between groups or communities, behavior unusual in gregarious mammal…
The evolution of female social relationships in nonhuman primates
A preliminary study of selective visual attention in female mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)
Coalitionary mate guarding by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Long-Term Habitat Use by Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei). 1. Consistency, Variation, and Home Range Size and Stability
Long-Term Habitat Use by Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei). 2. Reuse of Foraging Areas in Relation to Resource Abundance, Quality, and Depletion
Seasonality in the Ecology and Life Histories of Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei)
General Gregariousness and Specific Social Preferences among Wild Chimpanzees
Demographic influences on the hunting behavior of chimpanzees
We investigated hunting in an unusually large community of wild chimpanzees at Ngogo in the Kibale National Park, Uganda. Aspects of predation were recorded with respect to the prey, the predators, and hunting episodes. During 23 months of observation, the Ngogo chimpanzees caught 128 prey items from four primate and three ungulate species. Chimpanzees preyed selectively on immature red colobus primarily during group hunts, with adult males makin…
Infanticide and cannibalism by male chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
Grooming Between Male Chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park. II. Influence of Male Rank and Possible Competition for Partners
Biology (65 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (62 works) · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior (45 works) · Animal Behavior and Reproduction (38 works) · Demography (36 works) · Ecology (32 works) · Animal ecology (31 works) · Zoology (31 works) · Geography (29 works) · Ecology (28 works)