Between-Group Competition Impacts Reproductive Success in Wild Chimpanzees

Abstract

Between-group competition in social animals appears to be a prominent selective pressure shaping the evolution of territoriality and cooperation [1-4]. Evidence for an effect of between-group competition on fitness in territorial species, however, is mostly lacking because of difficulty in measuring between-group competition and its long-term impact [5]. Between-group competition corresponds to a complex set of interactions between neighboring groups, and its intensity seems to depend on the competitive abilities of each interacting group [6, 7]. We tested whether the competitive ability of groups and the pressure exerted by neighboring groups affected the reproductive success of wild female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). Using long-term data on four neighboring groups in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, collected over the course of 54 observation years, we measured the competitive ability of habituated groups using the number of mature males and the pressure exerted by non-habituated neighbors with an index of neighbor pressure that combined the frequency of neighboring encounters and related spatial information. Importantly, we found that experiencing low neighbor pressure provides fitness benefits through increased offspring survival and shorter inter-birth intervals. Also, many males in a group are associated with shorter inter-birth intervals. We conclude that high between-group competition hampers fast reproduction and offspring survival when exposure is during the prenatal period. Our findings suggest that having many males in a group results in fitness benefits and that between-group competition should be considered as a potential selective pressure that shaped key social adaptations in the hominoid lineage.

Keywords: inter-birth interval; neighbor pressure; survival; territoriality; within-group competition.

Graphical abstract

Figure 1

Effects of Between-Group Competition and Within-Group Competition on Female Reproductive Success (A) Effect of neighbor pressure values during pregnancy on offspring survival, up to 150 months. (B) Effect of neighbor pressure values on offspring survival up to 3 years old (see also Table S2); red curve for neighbor pressure below the mean (range: 0–0.061; N = 56 pregnancies) and blue curve for neighbor pressure above the mean (range: 0.062–0.617; N = 25 pregnancies). (C) Neighbor pressure effect on inter-birth interval length. (D) Effect of group size (measured by the number of weaned individuals) on inter-birth interval length. (E) Effect of the number of mature males on inter-birth interval length. Dashed lines show the fitted models and the gray areas their 95% confidence interval. Letters and associated colors correspond to the different communities: E, east group; M, middle group; N, north group; S, south group.