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Published August 12, 2021 | Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

Comparative survival analyses among captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in America and Japan

Abstract

Detailed, long-term datasets on the life histories of long-lived species such as great apes are necessary to understand their survival patterns but are relatively rare. Such information requires prolonged and consistent record-keeping over many generations, so for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), this equates to many decades of input. As life history variables can be altered by differences in environmental influences (whether natural or artificial), there is substantial value to being able to compare across populations. Here, we present the first comparative analysis of life history data for two ex situ chimpanzee populations residing in North America (1975–2020; n = 730) and Japan (1980–2020; n = 660). Overall, survival patterns were similar between regions, and the median life expectancy from birth is estimated at 35.7 (95% CI = [32.4–40.0]) years for females and 30.1 (27.3–34.3) years for males across both populations. Females who survive to their first birthday are estimated to survive 42.4 (40.0–46.3) years and males 35.5 (32.6–38.0) years. We found that birth type (wild-born or captive-born) did not influence survival patterns in either population, but there were differential effects of sex on longevity. In the America population, males had higher mortality rates than females, whereas in the Japan population we found no differences between the sexes. First year mortality did not differ between populations for males (18–20%), but for females it was lower in America (15%) compared to Japan (25%). Survival patterns of chimpanzees in the present study will be useful for future investigation into potential causes of regional differences and cross-species comparisons.

Additional Information

© 2021 Che-Castaldo et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0. Submitted 26 March 2021; Accepted 14 July 2021; Published 12 August 2021. We thank Lisa Faust and Kristine Schad Eebes for helpful discussions regarding studbook analyses. We are also grateful to Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, Toshikazu Hasegawa, Gen'ichi Idani and all members of the Great Ape Information Network for their support in data collection in Japan. Funding: This research was supported by the Super Global University Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (SGU MEXT) and JAWK International Scholarship to Kristin Havercamp, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 18H05524) to Satoshi Hirata, the Core-to-Core program CCSN-R2 to Tetsuro Matsuzawa and the Leading Graduate Program of Primatology and Wildlife Science (PWS-U04) to Kristin Havercamp, Satoshi Hirata and Tetsuro Matsuzawa. Data collection of chimpanzees in Japan was supported by the Great Ape Information Network (GAIN). Support for Stephen Ross was provided by the Lincoln Park Zoo Women's Board. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Author Contributions: Judy Che–Castaldo conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. Kristin Havercamp conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. Koshiro Watanuki conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. Tetsuro Matsuzawa conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. Satoshi Hirata conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. Stephen R. Ross conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data Availability: The following information was supplied regarding data availability: Anonymized, individual-level data and R script for all analyses and figures are available at Figshare: Che–Castaldo, Judy (2021): Comparative survival analyses among captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in America and Japan. figshare. Dataset. DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.14685429.v1.

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Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023