Chimpanzee hunting behavior

The pursuit, capture and consumption of small-and medium-sized vertebrates, appears to be typical of all chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) populations, although large variation exists. Red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus sp.) appear to be the preferred prey but intensity and frequency of hunting varies from month to month and between populations. Hunting is a predominately male activity and is typically opportunistic, although there is some evidence of searching for prey. The degree of cooperation during hunting, as well as prey selection, varies between East and West African populations and may be related to the way the kill is divided: in West Africa, hunters often collaborate, with kills tending to be shared according to participation, whereas in East Africa, the kill is typically divided tactically by the male in possession of the carcass, trading meat with females in return for sex or with other males to strengthen alliances, and cooperation in hunting is more limited. The adaptive function of chimpanzee hunting is not well understood, although it appears that it may be both a means to acquire a nutritionally valuable commodity that can then be traded and as a means for males to display their prowess and reliability to one another

Bystanders, parcelling, and an absence of trust in the grooming interactions of wild male chimpanzees

The evolution of cooperation remains a central issue in socio-biology with the fundamental problem of how individuals minimize the risks of being short-changed (‘cheated’) should their behavioural investment in another not be returned. Economic decisions that individuals make during interactions may depend upon the presence of potential partners nearby, which o ers co operators a temptation to defect from the current partner. The parcelling model posits that donors subdivide services into parcels to force cooperation, and that this is contingent on opportunities for defection; that is, the presence of bystanders. Here we test this model and the e ect of bystander presence using grooming interactions of wild chimpanzees. We found that with more bystanders, initiators gave less grooming at the beginning of the bout and were more likely to abandon a grooming bout, while bouts were less likely to be reciprocated. We also found that the groomer’s initial investment was not higher among frequent groomers or stronger reciprocators, suggesting that contrary to current assumptions, grooming decisions are not based on trust, or bonds, within dyads. Our work highlights the importance of considering immediate social context and the in uence of bystanders for understanding the evolution of the behavioural strategies that produce cooperation

Invisible water, visible impact: How unsustainable groundwater use challenges sustainability of Indian agriculture under climate change

India is one of the world’s largest food producers, making the sustainability of its agricultural system of global significance. Groundwater irrigation underpins India’s agriculture, currently boosting crop production by enough to feed 170 million people. Groundwater overexploitation has led to drastic declines in groundwater levels, threatening to push this vital resource out of reach for millions of small-scale farmers who are the backbone of India’s food security. Historically, losing access to groundwater has decreased agricultural production and increased poverty. We take a multidisciplinary approach to assess climate change challenges facing India’s agricultural system, and to assess the effectiveness of large-scale water infrastructure projects designed to meet these challenges. We find that even in areas that experience climate change induced precipitation increases, expansion of irrigated agriculture will require increasing amounts of unsustainable groundwater. The large proposed national river linking project has limited capacity to alleviate groundwater stress. Thus, without intervention, poverty and food insecurity in rural India is likely to worsen

A Melding of the Minds: When Primatology Meets Personality and Social Psychology

Social/personality psychology and behavioral primatology both enjoy long histories of research aimed at uncovering the proximate and ultimate determinants of primate--human and nonhuman--social behavior. Although they share research themes, methodologies and theories, and their studied species are closely related, there is currently very little interaction between the fields. This separation means that researchers in these disciplines miss out on opportunities to advance understanding by combining insights from both fields. Social/personality psychologists additionally miss the opportunity for a phylogenetic analysis. The time has come to integrate perspectives on primate social psychology. Here we provide a historical background and document the main similarities and differences in approaches. Next we present some examples of research programs that may benefit from an integrated primate perspective. Finally, we propose a framework for developing a social psychology inclusive of all primates. Such a melding of minds promises to greatly benefit those who undertake the challenge

Intelligent Resource Use to Deliver Waste Valorisation and Process Resilience in Manufacturing Environments

© 2020 Johnson Matthey Circular economy (CE) thinking has emerged as a route to sustainable manufacture, with related cradle-to-cradle implications requiring implementation from the design stage. The challenge lies in moving manufacturing environments away from the traditional linear economy paradigm, where materials, energy and water have often been designed to move out of the system and into receivership of waste management bodies after use. Recent applications of industrial digital technologies (IDTs: for example internet of things, data-driven modelling, cyber-physical systems, cloud manufacturing, cognitive computing) to manufacturing may be instrumental in transforming manufacturing from linear to circular. However, although IDTs and CE have been the focus of intensive research, there is currently limited research exploring the relationship between IDTs and the CE and how the former may drive the implementation of CE. This article aims to close the knowledge gap by exploring how an IDT (data-driven modelling) may facilitate and advance CE principles within process manufacturing systems, specifically waste valorisation and process resilience. These applications are then demonstrated through two real-world manufacturing case studies: (a) minimising resource consumption of industrial cleaning processes and (b) transforming wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) into manufacturing centres

Tumor cell invasion of collagen matrices requires coordinate lipid agonist-induced G-protein and membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase-1-dependent signaling

BACKGROUND: Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) are bioactive lipid signaling molecules implicated in tumor dissemination. Membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MT1-MMP) is a membrane-tethered collagenase thought to be involved in tumor invasion via extracellular matrix degradation. In this study, we investigated the molecular requirements for LPA- and S1P-regulated tumor cell migration in two dimensions (2D) and invasion of three-dimensional (3D) collagen matrices and, in particular, evaluated the role of MT1-MMP in this process. RESULTS: LPA stimulated while S1P inhibited migration of most tumor lines in Boyden chamber assays. Conversely, HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells migrated in response to both lipids. HT1080 cells also markedly invaded 3D collagen matrices (~700 μm over 48 hours) in response to either lipid. siRNA targeting of LPA(1 )and Rac1, or S1P(1), Rac1, and Cdc42 specifically inhibited LPA- or S1P-induced HT1080 invasion, respectively. Analysis of LPA-induced HT1080 motility on 2D substrates vs. 3D matrices revealed that synthetic MMP inhibitors markedly reduced the distance (~125 μm vs. ~45 μm) and velocity of invasion (~0.09 μm/min vs. ~0.03 μm/min) only when cells navigated 3D matrices signifying a role for MMPs exclusively in invasion. Additionally, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs)-2, -3, and -4, but not TIMP-1, blocked lipid agonist-induced invasion indicating a role for membrane-type (MT)-MMPs. Furthermore, MT1-MMP expression in several tumor lines directly correlated with LPA-induced invasion. HEK293s, which neither express MT1-MMP nor invade in the presence of LPA, were transfected with MT1-MMP cDNA, and subsequently invaded in response to LPA. When HT1080 cells were seeded on top of or within collagen matrices, siRNA targeting of MT1-MMP, but not other MMPs, inhibited lipid agonist-induced invasion establishing a requisite role for MT1-MMP in this process. CONCLUSION: LPA is a fundamental regulator of MT1-MMP-dependent tumor cell invasion of 3D collagen matrices. In contrast, S1P appears to act as an inhibitory stimulus in most cases, while stimulating only select tumor lines. MT1-MMP is required only when tumor cells navigate 3D barriers and not when cells migrate on 2D substrata. We demonstrate that tumor cells require coordinate regulation of LPA/S1P receptors and Rho GTPases to migrate, and additionally, require MT1-MMP in order to invade collagen matrices during neoplastic progression

Mineral Acquisition from Clay by Budongo Forest Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees of the Sonso community, Budongo Forest, Uganda were observed eating clay and drinking clay-water from waterholes. We show that clay, clay-rich water, and clay obtained with leaf sponges, provide a range of minerals in different concentrations. The presence of aluminium in the clay consumed indicates that it takes the form of kaolinite. We discuss the contribution of clay geophagy to the mineral intake of the Sonso chimpanzees and show that clay eaten using leaf sponges is particularly rich in minerals. We show that termite mound soil, also regularly consumed, is rich in minerals. We discuss the frequency of clay and termite soil geophagy in the context of the disappearance from Budongo Forest of a formerly rich source of minerals, the decaying pith of Raphia farinifera palms

Methylmercury in marine ecosystems : spatial patterns and processes of production, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification

Author Posting. © International Association for Ecology and Health, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in EcoHealth 5 (2008): 399-408, doi:10.1007/s10393-008-0201-1.The spatial variation of MeHg production, bioaccumulation and biomagnification in marine food webs is poorly characterized but critical to understanding the links between sources and higher trophic levels such as fish that are ultimately vectors of human and wildlife exposure. This paper discusses both large and local scale processes controlling Hg supply, methylation, bioaccumulation and transfer in marine ecosystems. While global estimates of Hg supply suggest important open ocean reservoirs of MeHg, only coastal processes and food webs are known sources of MeHg production, bioaccumulation, and bioadvection. The patterns observed to date suggest that not all sources and biotic receptors are spatially linked and that physical and ecological processes are important in transferring MeHg from source regions to bioaccumulation in marine food webs and from lower to higher trophic levels.Supported by NIH Grant Number P42 ESO7373 from the NIEHS, SERDP funds from the Department of Defense, the ESSRF (Environmental Science Strategic Research Fund) DFO, Canada, Woods Hole Sea Grant, Woods Hole Coastal Ocean Institute, National Science Foundation, and RI-INBRE Grant #P20RR016457 from NCRR, NIH