Manual skills for food processing by mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Although gorillas rarely use tools in the wild, their manipulative skills during plant processing may be similar to those of other tool-using great apes. Virunga mountain gorillas are known for the complexity in their methods of thistle and nettle plant preparation in the wild. However, there has been no comparable data on food processing in the population of mountain gorillas from the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. We investigated the manual actions and hand grips used when accessing edible parts of two hard-to-process plants defended by stinging hairs, epidermis or periderm (i.e., peel of Urera hypselodendron and pith of Mimulopsis arborescens) and one undefended plant (i.e., leaves of Momordica foetida) in 11 Bwindi wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) using video records ad libitum. Similar to thistle feeding by Virunga gorillas, Bwindi gorillas used the greatest number of manual actions for the most hard-to-process plant (U. hypselodendron), the actions were ordered in several key stages and organised hierarchically. The demands of processing plant material elicited 19 different grips and variable thumb postures, of which three grips were new and 16 grips have either been previously reported or show clear similarities to grips used by other wild and captive African apes and humans. Moreover, our study only partly supports a functional link between diet and hand morphology in mountain gorillas and suggests that the gorilla hand is best adapted to forceful grasping that is required for both manipulation and arboreal locomotion

Comparison of Hand Use and Forelimb Mechanics of Vertical Climbing in Wild Mountain Gorillas and Free-Ranging Chimpanzees

Biomechanical analyses of great ape arboreal locomotion in a natural environment are scarce, thus limiting attempts to correlate behavioural and habitat differences with variation in skeletal morphology. Vertical climbing is a crucial locomotor and foraging strategy of great apes and the hands are critically important to maintaining stability on irregular, arboreal substrates. However, little is known about arboreal grips and hand postures, or how these might vary with forelimb posture during vertical climbing on natural substrates of different sizes. This is particularly true of mountain gorillas, which are considered the least arboreal of all African apes and for which the characteristics of vertical climbing have not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to compare temporal kinematics of hand and forelimb use during vertical climbing in wild, habituated mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda) and sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) of the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust (Zambia) to assess differences in climbing styles that may relate to variation in hand or forelimb morphology and body mass. We investigated hand and forelimb posture coupled with temporal gait parameters during vertical climbing (both ascent and descent) in 15 mountain gorillas and eight chimpanzees, using video records ad libitum. In both apes, forelimb posture was correlated with substrate size during both ascent and descent climbing. Both apes used power grips and a diagonal power grip, involving three different thumb postures. Gorillas showed greater ulnar deviation of the wrist during climbing than chimpanzees, and the thumb played an important supportive role when vertically descending compliant substrates in gorillas. Comparisons of temporal gait parameters indicated that large-bodied gorillas exhibited significant longer cycle duration, lower stride frequency and generally a higher duty factor than chimpanzees. This study revealed that wild mountain gorillas adapt their climbing strategy to accommodate their large body mass in a similar manner found in captive western lowland gorillas, but that our sanctuary chimpanzees showed less variation in their climbing strategy within a natural environment than has been documented in captive bonobo

Life-history trade-offs mediate ‘personality’ variation in two colour morphs of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum

Life‐history trade‐offs are considered a major driving force in the emergence of consistent behavioural differences (personality variation); but empirical tests are scarce. We investigated links between a personality trait (escape response), life‐history and state variables (growth rate, size and age at first reproduction, age‐dependent reproductive rates, lifetime reproductive success, life span) in red and green colour morphs of clonal pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Escape response (dropping/non‐dropping off a plant upon a predatory attack) was measured repeatedly to classify individuals as consistent droppers, consistent nondroppers or inconsistents. Red morphs experienced stronger trade‐offs between early reproduction and life span than green morphs; and red consistent (non)droppers had highest lifetime reproductive success. Red droppers followed a risk‐averse life‐history strategy (high late reproduction), red nondroppers a risk‐prone strategy (high early reproduction), while reproductive rates were equivalent for all green behavioural types and red inconsistents. This suggests that red morphs suffer the highest costs of dropping (they are most conspicuous to predators), which ‘equivalates’ fitness payoffs to both risk‐takers (red non‐droppers) and risk‐averse red droppers. The strong trade‐off also means that committing to a particular lifestyle (being consistent) maximises fitness. Our study suggests that life‐history trade‐offs likely mediate personality variation but effects might depend on interactions with other organismal characteristics (here: colour morph)

Personality variation in a clonal insect: The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum

Individuals are often consistent in their behavior but vary from each other in the level of behavior shown. Despite burgeoning interest in such animal personality variation, studies on invertebrates are scarce, and studies on clonal invertebrates nonexistent. This is surprising given the obvious advantages of using invertebrates/clones to tackle the crucial question why such consistent behavioral differences exist. Here we show that individuals of clonal pea aphids exhibit consistent behavioral differences in their escape responses to a predator attack (dropping vs. nondropping off a plant). However, behavior was not repeatable at the clonal level. Genetically identical clones expressed various phenotypes but different clones produced different proportions of each phenotype (dropper, nondropper, and inconsistent). Manipulations of early environmental conditions had little qualitative impact on such patterns. We discuss the importance of our findings for future studies of the evolutionary and ecological consequences of personality variation

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