Chimp & See Talk

Families ( = females with kids)

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    I try to explain in this post a bit more (than maybe necessary) to engage more people normally not engaged in these matching discussions.

    Maybe it helps if we start separate posts (for each future site) for families that do not have one (or more) individuals with clearly recognizable traits, but could possibly defined by number and age ( = visible body size) of their members.

    As chimpanzee societies are working under a fission-fusion model, i.e. a female (with or without dependent offsprings) associate with several males or females (the latter: with or without dependent offsprings) of the same community for hours or days at a time and in different combinations at different time points. In principle: they could be seen with anyone from their community at a certain time. (There might be friendships, but others have benefits on this special day too.)

    But, there is one relatively stable component: the family. Families are adult females with their offsprings up until a certain age (I take 10 years here for easy comparison with humans 😃 and as male juveniles of this age can possibly father kids of their own. )

    These offsprings (infants until 4 years of age, juveniles past this age) follow their mom closely and forage for food for a long time mainly in her "core area" and with her present in a varying distance. So, we assume that chimps that are classified by plain eye view as being a lot smaller and not as adults are juveniles or infants and might be with their mother. And should be with their mother (that's what we assume). This is especially important while traveling and with other chimps present.

    But we have to be careful here, our one minute (in four 15-second parts) clips might not determine the true relationship of one female with the kids (infants + juveniles) present. Carrying an infant is a strong indicator. Usually, only mothers carry their kids. But, when only one adult female and some kids are present, we can assume these are hers when appropriately age spaced. We do not assumed kids at around the same age as twin births are rare and the birth interval usually around 3 to 4 years.

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Ok, this was only the introduction ... 😉 (the post will not be long, but demonstrate something).

    In ACP0006ldu, we see an adult female with an infant (walking alone, but close to her) and an older juvenile following. Not much is seen, but their backs. No face view, no grayness, no scars, no damaged ears (these traits are easy!). No one is following in this minute ( in ACP0006ldv, ACP0006ldw, ACP0006ldx).

    But we can - in my opinion - establish the following: we have seen before at least one identified female with an infant (Ilsa and Bohe) with a following juvenile (DL11Juv5) as a possible family. Ilsa (tag group here: http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/collections/CCPL0000jn) is much more robust than this lean female (compare their body build!). The sexual swelling of the female is quite pink and not much protruded, but not actually swollen (with accumulated fluid intake). Ilsa's (also not swollen) swelling is quite small and a little bit pink (compare with the video in the tag group, all very neat.) They are - probably - not the same family. This is not much, but one indicator to sort things out here at Chimp&See.

    From ACP0006ldu

    enter image description here

    Ilsa with Bohe from ACP0006rau (smaller - medium build - and more robust)

    enter image description here

    following juvenile in ACP0006rax

    enter image description here

    DL11Juv5 (seen with Ilsa and Bohe) in ACP00064o1

    enter image description here

    So, now YOU can check out all chimp videos with an adult female, an infant, and an older juvenile to match these guys and name them!

    Posted

  • NuriaM by NuriaM scientist, moderator in response to AnLand's comment.

    hey @AnLand, this is great. It´s a good idea to separate families in future sites...but I hope that the next sites have better quality videos anyway, so that we can recognize them more easily than here in DL11 😃

    Thanks!!

    Posted