@article{b5263720cf5c401dab9d42e1743571f0,
title = "No evidence of short-term exchange of meat for sex among chimpanzees",
abstract = "The meat-for-sex hypothesis posits that male chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) trade meat with estrous females in exchange for short-term mating access. This notion is widely cited in the anthropological literature and has been used to construct scenarios about human evolution. Here we review the theoretical and empirical basis for the meat-for-sex hypothesis. We argue that chimpanzee behavioral ecology does not favor the evolution of such exchanges because 1) female chimpanzees show low mate selectivity and require little or no material incentive to mate, violating existing models of commodity exchange; and 2) meat-for-sex exchanges are unlikely to provide reproductive benefits to either partner. We also present new analyses of 28 years of data from two East African chimpanzee study sites (Gombe National Park, Tanzania; Kanyawara, Kibale National Park, Uganda) and discuss the results of previously published studies. In at least three chimpanzee communities, 1) the presence of sexually receptive females did not increase hunting probability, 2) males did not share preferentially with sexually receptive females, and 3) sharing with females did not increase a male's short-term mating success. We acknowledge that systematic meat sharing by male chimpanzees in expectation of, or in return for, immediate copulations might be discovered in future studies. However, current data indicate that such exchanges are so rare, and so different in nature from exchanges among humans, that with respect to chimpanzees, sexual bartering in humans should be regarded as a derived trait with no known antecedents in the behavior of wild chimpanzees.",
keywords = "Biological markets, Food sharing, Hunting, Mate provisioning, Meat eating, Reciprocity, Tolerated theft",
author = "Gilby, {Ian C.} and {Emery Thompson}, M. and Ruane, {Jonathan D.} and Richard Wrangham",
note = "Funding Information: Research at Gombe is funded by the Jane Goodall Institute. We thank Tanzania National Parks, the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, and the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology for granting us permission to work in Gombe National Park. We are deeply indebted to the Gombe Stream Research Center staff for maintaining data collection, and Drs. Jane Goodall and Anne Pusey for granting us permission to work with the long-term data set. Digitization of the long-term data at the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies, under the direction of Anne Pusey, was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation ( DBS-9021946, SBR-9319909, BCS-0452315 ), the University of Minnesota, the Harris Steel Group, the Windibrow Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and Minnesota Base Camp. Data analysis for this project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF # IIS–0431141 ). Many thanks to Esther Collins for translation and Joann Schumacher-Stankey for extracting mating data. Funding Information: Fieldwork by I. Gilby was supported by the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Animal Behaviour Society, Sigma Xi, the Explorers Club, the Dayton and Wilkie Natural History Funds, the University of Minnesota's Grants for Research Abroad Program, and the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. Funding Information: Long-term research at Kanyawara was supported by funding from NSF Grant 0416125 to R. Wrangham. We thank the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, the Uganda Wildlife Authority, and the Makerere University Biological Field Station for permission to conduct research within Kibale National Park. This project would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the field research team, especially Francis Mugurusi, Christopher Muruuli, Peter Tuhairwe, Christopher Katongole, and the late Donor Muhangyi and John Barwogeza. Similarly, field managers Michael Wilson, Martin Muller, Katherin Pieta, Carole Hooven, Kimberly Duffy, Alain Houle, and Emily Otali were essential to the success of the project. ",
year = "2010",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.02.006",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "59",
pages = "44--53",
journal = "Journal of human evolution",
issn = "0047-2484",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "1",
}