Early maternal loss affects social integration of chimpanzees throughout their lifetime

The long-term effects of early adverse experiences on later psychosocial functioning are well described in humans, but sparsely documented for chimpanzees. In our earlier studies, we investigated the effects of maternal and social deprivation on three groups of ex-laboratory chimpanzees who experien...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2015-11, Vol.5 (1), p.16439-16439, Article 16439
Main Authors: Kalcher-Sommersguter, Elfriede, Preuschoft, Signe, Franz-Schaider, Cornelia, Hemelrijk, Charlotte K., Crailsheim, Karl, Massen, Jorg J. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/477
631/601/18
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Grooming
Humanities and Social Sciences
Integration
Laboratories
Long-term effects
multidisciplinary
Pan troglodytes - psychology
Science
Social Behavior
Social integration
Social interactions
Zoos
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Summary:The long-term effects of early adverse experiences on later psychosocial functioning are well described in humans, but sparsely documented for chimpanzees. In our earlier studies, we investigated the effects of maternal and social deprivation on three groups of ex-laboratory chimpanzees who experienced either an early or later onset of long-term deprivation. Here we expand our research by adding data on subjects that came from two stable zoo groups. The groups comprised of early maternally deprived wild-caught chimpanzees and non-deprived zoo-born chimpanzees. We found that compared to zoo chimpanzees, ex-laboratory chimpanzees were more restricted regarding their association partners in the newly formed groups, but not during their second year of group-life, indicating that social stability has an important influence on the toleration of association partners close-by. Social grooming activity, however, was impaired in early long-term deprived ex-laboratory chimpanzees as well as in early maternally deprived zoo chimpanzees compared to non-deprived zoo chimpanzees. Thus, we conclude that early maternal loss has lifelong effects on the social integration of chimpanzees which becomes evident in their grooming networks. Although the retrospective nature of our study prevents a clear causal explanation, our results are of importance for understanding the development of social competence in chimpanzees.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep16439