Chimp & See Talk

new hashtag for female swellings: #max_swelling (please read!)

  • maureenmccarthy by maureenmccarthy scientist, moderator

    Hi everyone,

    We are introducing a new hashtag to collect data on which videos contain female chimpanzees with a maximal swelling. We are interested in this since ovulating females are thought to affect party size.

    You are welcome to use this new hashtag but there is no obligation to do so. If you do use the hashtag, please read the following first! ā˜ŗ

    A female chimpanzee with a full swelling will get the hashtag #max_swelling. If the video contains a female with a partially or fully deflated swelling, no hashtag will be used. We will use the hashtag just once per video even if there is more than one female with a maximal swelling in a video.

    How can I tell whether a female has a maximal swelling?

    We have created a graphic to help illustrate this (below).

    What should I do if Iā€™m not sure whether the swelling is maximal or not?

    Please hashtag it #max_swelling. It is better to hashtag it if you are unsure. We will check over the #max_swelling hashtags to confirm them, so there is no risk of negatively affecting the data if a hashtag is incorrect.

    As always, we are extremely grateful for your help!!! šŸ˜„

    one

    Posted

  • kristinhavercamp by kristinhavercamp scientist in response to maureenmccarthy's comment.

    @maureenmccarthy - great idea! Will be interesting to see if a max swelling attracts more female or male companions... is the hypothesis that individual females at peak fertility attract more males because they want to gain mating opportunities? I would guess more males and fewer females, as the females that are not ovulating would want to avoid any possible competition that exists among large groups?

    Posted

  • maureenmccarthy by maureenmccarthy scientist, moderator

    @kristinhavercamp - Various studies have shown a relationship between chimpanzee party size and the presence of maximally swollen females, so that is why we want to record it when we see these females šŸ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Here is the graphic about female swellings and when to tag a max_swelling that got lost from Maureen's posting:

    enter image description here

    Posted