ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
'Impact hunters' catalyse cooperative hunting in two wild chimpanzee communities.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- Pigs solve a cooperative task without showing a clear understanding of the need for a partner.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Sex differences in health burdens across the lifespan in wild chimpanzees (Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Article
- Chimpanzees employ context-specific behavioral strategies within fission-fusion societies.Primates; journal of primatology · 2024Article
- Young adults' desired life tradeoffs: love first, sex last.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The evolution of democratic peace in animal societies.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Vocal signals facilitate cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees.Science advances · 2022Article
- Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Key individuals catalyse intergroup violence.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Parochial cooperation in wild chimpanzees: a model to explain the evolution of parochial altruism.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Balancing costs and benefits in primates: ecological and palaeoanthropological views.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Hunting of mammals by central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Loango National Park, Gabon.Primates; journal of primatology · 2021Article
- Insights into human evolution from 60 years of research on chimpanzees at Gombe.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
- Postweaning maternal care increases male chimpanzee reproductive success.Science advances · 2020Article
- Article
- Wood and meat as complementary sources of sodium for Kanyawara chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).American journal of physical anthropology · 2020Article
- Foresight in a Game of Leadership.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Article
- No evidence for a relationship between breed cooperativeness and inequity aversion in dogs.PloS one · 2020Article
- A Shared Food Source Is Not Necessary to Elicit Inequity Aversion in Dogs.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
- How chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) share the spoils with collaborators and bystanders.PloS one · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Even when hunting in groups is mutually beneficial, it is unclear how communal hunts are initiated. If it is costly to be the only hunter, individuals should be reluctant to hunt unless others already are. We used 70 years of data from three communities to examine how male chimpanzees 'solve' this apparent collective action problem. The 'impact hunter' hypothesis proposes that group hunts are sometimes catalysed by certain individuals that hunt more readily than others. In two communities (Kasekela and Kanyawara), we identified a total of five males that exhibited high hunt participation rates for their age, and whose presence at an encounter with red colobus monkeys increased group hunting probability. Critically, these impact hunters were observed to hunt first more often than expected by chance. We argue that by hunting first, these males dilute prey defences and create opportunities for previously reluctant participants. This by-product mutualism can explain variation in group hunting rates within and between social groups. Hunting rates declined after the death of impact hunter FG in Kasekela and after impact hunter MS stopped hunting frequently in Kanyawara. There were no impact hunters in the third, smaller community (Mitumba), where, unlike the others, hunting probability increased with the number of females present at an encounter with prey.
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