EFFECTS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY ON CHIMPANZEE WOUNDING

Reducing the frequency and/or severity of aggression and wounding is a major concern of people managing socially housed chimpanzees. One fac tor that has not been investigated intensively for its effect on capti ve chimpanzee agonism is the presence of humans. Therefore, we examine d an archival database of wounding incidents among 88 adult and adoles cent members of 8 social groups of chimpanzees (42 females, 46 males) to determine whether variable levels of human activity (higher weekday versus lower weekend-day activity levels) in the colony was associate d with changes in chimpanzee wounding patterns. Wounding was tabulated for each group for periods of 38 - 118 months. A series of Chi-square tests indicated that there were a greater than expected number of wou nding episodes on weekdays but that day of the week did not affect the age or sex distribution of wounding. Together, these results suggest that the presence of personnel completing routine activities is associ ated with chimpanzee agonism. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.