"Are Western Chimpanzees a New Species of Pan?"

S

Surroundx

Well-Known Member
Very interesting idea. Nice article too:

"What if I told you there were populations of chimpanzees that made spears to hunt, lived in caves, and loved playing in water? These are behaviors usually associated with ancient humans, not chimpanzees. However, recent research has revealed that there are populations of western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) that engage in all of these behaviours, and it is challenging our current understanding of chimpanzee taxonomy. In other words, they may not be chimpanzees!"

Are Western Chimpanzees a New Species of Pan? | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network
 
Thanks for posting surroundx. This is fascinating. I remember that back in 1994 when using genetics to study population differences was still relatively new there was a lot of media attention paid to the discovery that the West African chimps were genetically distinct. I did not realize that the differences were so profound and apparently have associated behavioral differences too.
 
Interesting post, i am working with west african chimps at the moment in Abidjan zoo, but also working with chimpanzee organisations in the west of Africa as well
 
There is work going on to separate off P.(t.) verus at EEP level. I feel sure that at least 15 years ago there was a suggestion that these animals should be split off as a third species of Pan, with a proposed popular name of "tschego".
 
can you let me know who is doing this work, it sounds very interesting and would like to know much more, especially as i am working with these chimpanzees, and have also done in Mali
 
Surroundx said:
Are Western Chimpanzees a New Species of Pan? | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network
Click to expand...

No, but Scientific American blog is again cr*p and misinforming readers.

The proposal to split western chimpanzee into species comes from early 2000s (if you discount 19./early 20. century) and was never followed. Old chestnut here.

Also, behaviors like using sticks to extract prey from holes are not uniform among western chimpanzees. They are habits developed by SOME LOCAL POPULATIONS of western chimpanzees. Other western populations don't do it, nor there is any indication that any subspecies of chimpanzees as a whole is more intelligent or more diverse in behavior than another.
 
Jurek7 said:
No, but Scientific American blog is again cr*p and misinforming readers.

The proposal to split western chimpanzee into species comes from early 2000s (if you discount 19./early 20. century) and was never followed. Old chestnut here.

Also, behaviors like using sticks to extract prey from holes are not uniform among western chimpanzees. They are habits developed by SOME LOCAL POPULATIONS of western chimpanzees. Other western populations don't do it, nor there is any indication that any subspecies of chimpanzees as a whole is more intelligent or more diverse in behavior than another.
Click to expand...

I don't find this article to be crap at all. The author is a chimpanzee researcher and very clearly documents the genetic splits and concordant behavioral splits in chimpanzees.

I agree that behavioral differences likely aren't good characters to be making species arguments about, but the author again very clearly states this.

The main purpose of this article is informing people that there is genetic and behavioral divergence in chimpanzees. How is this misinforming readers?
 
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