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A preliminary analysis of wound care and other-regarding behavior in wild chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda

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Abstract

Caring for others is a key feature of human behavior. Mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, and other group members provide care in the form of provisioning, protection, and first aid. To what extent is other-regarding behavior present in our primate relatives? Here we describe an unusual incident of other-regarding behavior toward an injured juvenile female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda. After the juvenile received a mild head wound from an adult female, several adolescent and juvenile chimpanzees gathered to touch, lick, and peer at the wound. One adolescent male wiped a leaf across the cut. Another adolescent male later groomed the injured female and briefly carried her. Across a 5-year period, we observed only three other instances of other-directed wound care in chimpanzees, occurring in 4% (4/100) of cases in which we observed individuals with fresh wounds, and 57 other instances of allomaternal carrying. Despite the infrequency of such behaviors, our study adds another chimpanzee field site to the list of those where other-directed wound care has been observed. Observations from wild chimpanzees provide insight into empathy and may inform our understanding of the evolution of other-regarding behavior in humans.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, and the Makerere University Biological Field Station for permission to conduct research. For support in the field, we are grateful to John Mitani, David Watts, Samuel Angedakin, Alfred Tumusiime, Ambrose Twineomujuni, Brian Kamugyisha, Charles Birungi, Chris Aliganyira, Diana Kanweri, Godfrey Mbabazi, and Lawrence Ndangizi. Funding was provided by the Leakey Foundation, the University of Michigan, the Nacey-Maggioncalda Foundation, the National Science Foundation (1540259, F031543, BCS-1613392, DGE-1256260), and the National Geographic Society (CRE-9742-15).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, 2201 Speedway Stop C3200, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Isabelle R. Clark & Aaron A. Sandel

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Rachna B. Reddy

  3. Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Rachna B. Reddy

  4. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Kevin E. Langergraber

  5. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Kevin E. Langergraber

Authors
  1. Isabelle R. Clark
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  2. Aaron A. Sandel
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  3. Rachna B. Reddy
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  4. Kevin E. Langergraber
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Correspondence to Isabelle R. Clark.

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Clark, I.R., Sandel, A.A., Reddy, R.B. et al. A preliminary analysis of wound care and other-regarding behavior in wild chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Primates 62, 697–702 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-021-00925-7

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