ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2018
Group and kin recognition via olfactory cues in chimpanzees (
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social isolation, rather than kinship, influences association behavior in toad tadpoles (Bufo formosus).Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Urine washing and urinary odour profiles in relation to dominance rank status in wild male capuchin monkeys (Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Understanding collective behavior through neurobiology.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2024Review
- Female chimpanzees avoid inbreeding even in the presence of substantial bisexual philopatry.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Characterization of the microbiome and volatile compounds in anal gland secretions from domestic cats (Felis catus) using metagenomics and metabolomics.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Reproductive inequality among males in the genusPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The Scent Enriched Primate.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Characterization of the microbiome and volatile compounds in anal gland secretions from domestic cats (Felis catus) using metagenomics and metabolomics.Research square · 2023Article
- Brown bear skin-borne secretions display evidence of individuality and age-sex variation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A pachyderm perfume: odour encodes identity and group membership in African elephants.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- First observation of a chimpanzee with albinism in the wild: Social interactions and subsequent infanticide.American journal of primatology · 2022Article
- Sexual Dimorphism in Crowned Lemur Scent-Marking.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Two wild female bonobos adopted infants from a different social group at Wamba.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Neuronal Mechanisms that Drive Organismal Aging Through the Lens of Perception.Annual review of physiology · 2020Review
- First experimental evidence for olfactory species discrimination in two nocturnal primate species (Microcebus lehilahytsara and M. murinus).Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Conserved features of anterior cingulate networks support observational learning across species.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
- Genetic variation at MHC class II loci influences both olfactory signals and scent discrimination in ring-tailed lemurs.BMC evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Group and kin recognition via olfactory cues in chimpanzees (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Primates were traditionally thought to have a reduced sense of smell. Although there is now evidence that olfaction plays a greater role in primate social life than previously assumed, research on the sense of smell in non-human apes is scarce. Chimpanzees sniff the ground and vegetation on boundary patrols, but the function of this behaviour is unclear. Since chimpanzees are highly territorial and can kill individuals that do not belong to their own community, sniffing might function to gather information about conspecifics, particularly concerning group membership and kinship. To investigate whether chimpanzees recognize group members and kin via olfactory cues, we conducted behavioural bioassays on two groups of chimpanzees at Leipzig Zoo. In a pilot study, we found that chimpanzees responded more strongly to urine than to faeces or body odour. We then presented urine from group members, outgroup individuals and an unscented control in aerated boxes using a simultaneous discrimination task. The first behaviour after a chimpanzee first approached a box was related to olfaction (sniffing, nose within 20 cm, licking) in 83% of cases, highlighting the importance of olfaction as a general investigation mechanism in this species. Chimpanzees sniffed significantly longer at urine stimuli than the control and significantly longer at odours from outgroup individuals than those from group members. Furthermore, the duration of sniffing was positively correlated with relatedness. Our results suggest that chimpanzees use olfactory cues to obtain information about social relationships and fill a gap in our understanding of primate chemical communication.
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Registered trials
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