HOPE report

Number:21-010

Behavioral study on welfare consideration of wild animals

Report:Morimura Naruki

Date:2009/09/05 - 2009/11/29

The study on the behavioral influence between wild chimpanzees and human in a co-existing area of both species was conducted at Bossou, Guinea from September 5th to November 29th in 2009. The behavioral data of 13 wild chimpanzees was obtained by the observation with a focal animal sampling method from 0630 until 1800. The name of subject, location, and the size of group were recorded. In order to understand an attitude of village persons towards wild chimpanzee, hearing investigation on a problem related with wild chimpanzees was done for persons lived in Bossou. Moreover, human behavior in the presence of wild chimpanzees was observed at a boundary of forest and roads, fields, and residences. As the result of preliminary analysis, wild chimpanzees stayed for large proportion of daytime in the area near human activity, even though chimpanzees showed keeping no response towards humans. Chimpanzees of elderly and/or pregnancy tended to avoid encountering with humans. Moreover, an alfa-male chimpanzee returned into forest by hearing call of a female that avoided passing a road following by the male. Village person also tolerant towards the presence of chimpanzees in the area near human activity, though some persons rarely passed near chimpanzees on a road forcibly and made a noise around chimpanzees just for curiosity. Therefore, an attitude of tolerance for the presence of each other could contribute to co-exist both of chimpanzees and humans with overlapped living space. The data is undertaken to analyze on more details.

HOPE Project<>