Sustained myrmecophagy in Nigerian chimpanzees

Preferred or fallback food

Bibliographic Data

ID8315802
AuthorsSommer (0000-0001-6749-3362, Gashaka Primate Project), Volker Sommer (0000-0002-9235-8493, Department of Anthropology University College London London WC1 E6BT United Kingdom), Umaru Buba (Gashaka Primate Project Serti 663 001 Taraba State Nigeria), Gonçalo Jesus (0000-0002-6469-1520, Department of Anthropology University College London London WC1 E6BT United Kingdom), A Pascual-Garrido (0000-0002-1903-6236, Leverhulme Trust, corresponding author), Alejandra Pascual‐Garrido (Gashaka Primate Project Serti 663 001 Taraba State Nigeria)
Year2017
Volume162
Issue2
Pages328-336
Publication date2017-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.23122
PMID27779749
OpenAlexW2540818952
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited41

OBJECTIVE: At some sites across Africa, chimpanzees consume army ants, often aided by plant tools, although consumption frequencies vary greatly. Other populations do not eat these insects at all, despite apparent abundance. The relative importance of this type of myrmecophagy for chimpanzee diet therefore remains unclear. We investigate if army ants constitute a preferred food or a fallback resource for chimpanzees at Gashaka, Nigeria, where army ants are consumed much more frequently than elsewhere. METHODS: Long-term records on temporal variation of climate and availability of fruit as the chimpanzees' preferred food are compared with rates of recovered army ant dipping wands and army ant remains in feces. RESULTS: Despite strict seasonality of rainfall and fruit abundance, myrmecophagy does not negatively correlate with fruit availability. Instead, army ant eating is sustained year round at high levels, with 44% of feces containing remains. CONCLUSIONS: Results contradict the fallback hypothesis and support the hypothesis that ants are a preferred food. Nevertheless, compared with fruit, ant-meals can normally provide only negligible amounts of nutrients. At Gashaka, however, nutritional yield may be significant, given that ant-dipping sessions provide on average 13 mg of dry weight to a chimpanzee. The species exclusively eaten here, Dorylus rubellus, might be particularly aggressive, thus resulting in greater harvesting success than elsewhere. Army ants may hence serve as a diet supplement or complement in terms of macro- or micronutrients

Abundance (ecology) · ANT · Biology · Feces · Nutrient · Zoology · Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology

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