Abstract
Grooming was observed in 11 wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Mahale, Tanzania, and the number of removal and stroke movements and grooming duration were recorded. Removal movements were more frequent during social grooming than during self-grooming. Chimpanzees used one or both hands for grooming, and grooming using both hands was more efficient for removing small objects. Due to physical constraints, self-grooming of the arms was almost always done using only one hand. The removal movement frequency during arm grooming was lower when self-grooming than when grooming another. They were more likely to use both hands during grooming another than during self-grooming, and fewer physical constraints during social grooming enabled a higher level of hygienic grooming.
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Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by grants from the COE program of Monbusho (#10CE2005 to O. Takenaka) and the Leakey Foundation (to T. Nishida), and by a MEXT Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (15004835 to K. Zamma). I am grateful to TAWIRI, COSTECH, and TANAPA for permission to work in Mahale. I also thank the MMWRC and MMNP for logistic support. I am also grateful to T. Nishida, J. Yamagiwa, N. Koyama, M. Imafuku, and M. Nakatsukasa for their comments and advice about the manuscript. I also express my gratitude to D.A. Collins, H. Ihobe, S. Suzuki, I. Tanaka, Y. Muroyama, Y. Takenoshita, N. Itoh, and members of Human Evolution Studies at Kyoto University for their advice, and to H.Y. Kayumbo, T. Nemoto, N. Corp, and T. Sakamaki for their help at the field station. I also acknowledge the assistance of K. Athmani and H. Bunengwa and the entire staff of the Mahale Mountains Chimpanzee Research Project for observing chimpanzees in the formidable bush.
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Zamma, K. Frequency of removal movements during social versus self-grooming among wild chimpanzees. Primates 52, 323–328 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-011-0267-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-011-0267-1