抄録
Grooming is one of the most important daily activities among chimpanzees, both in the wild and in captivity. Chimpanzees in the wild live in communities with multiple males and multiple females often forming large groups at a time whilst favoring fission-fusion “fluid”system in their daily life. Bonding among males is very important and though a strong linear hierarchy exist males spend more time grooming at each other than females or males and females in comparison. In captive settings grooming can be a crucial measurement for bonding and friendship, especially its development over time when new groups are formed. At the Kumamoto Sanctuary we have been collecting data on grooming behavior in our all-male group and also in several heterosexual groups with one or two males present. We hypothesized that an all-male group of 15 adult males living in a simulated fission-fusion system have more grooming occurrences developed than in our one or two males units living together with several females for approximately the same amount of time. It seems that female-female grooming is less than male-male grooming in both duration and frequency and male-female grooming only slightly higher during the females’ estrus cycle. Our all male group has shown a significant increase in bonding based on duration and frequency of grooming. Our finding is, though preliminary, so far supports our hypothesis and that data is presented here.
