Social System of the Common Chimpanzee
Pan Troglodytes
Image Courtesy of www.exzooberance.com
Chimpanzees live in a Fission-Fusion society in which a permanent community of chimps continually breaks into smaller parties, periodically reforms, and divides into new parties. Females, whose main concern is foraging for food in order to increase reproductive success, prefer to remain solitary and inhabit overlapping home ranges. Females participate in parties when in estrous. Males, seeking reproductive access to females in estrous, cooperate and defend a larger territory that encompasses all females in the community. Males join parties for coalition and alliance formation, as well as to gain access to females. Boundary defense is fierce, and warfare between communities has been known to occur. A slight dominance hierarchy exists among males, but ultimately provides stability rather than reproductive advantages.
Please click on the links below for more information.
This is a student website created by Mimi Cushman for Biology 323 at Davidson College.