CHIMPANZEE AND RED COLOBUS: THE ECOLOGY OF PREDATOR AND PREY

Craig B. Stanford 1998 Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 296 pp.

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One of the key current theoretical debates in the field of primate social evolution revolves around the role of predation. Are primate groups a response to predation pressure, predation rates, and predation risk? Can we, or should we, distinguish between these? Does predation have further effects on group composition and structure? While we have had numerous recent data papers that have demonstrated at least some relationship between predation and primate grouping, any doubting Thomas should turn to this book. Craig Stanford sets out to explore what he terms "the evolutionary dance between predator and prey" and does so with one of the most interesting systems in primates &endash; the complex relationship between primates as predators (chimpanzees) and primates as prey (red colobus).

This book is a beautifully written exposition of the interactions between chimps and colobus from both perspectives. The chimp data are derived from the long-term records at Gombe plus observations, and the colobus data are the result of five years of Stanford's personal field research. There are more data in this book than can be easily digested on the first reading, and primatologists will turn to it over years to both understand the patterns presented and to exploit its rich potential as a source of data. What is abundantly clear is the impact that chimps have had (and continue to exert) on red colobus populations and behaviour. This is a book that primatologists should have on their bookshelf, secure in the knowledge that it will gather little dust, and prove even more useful over time due to the quality and quantity of data presented.

The theoretical framework is laid out in Chapter 1, and is a useful outline of the issues and how this particular research evolved. It is followed with several chapters describing Gombe, the chimps as individuals, and presenting their histories. These individual histories pick up where Goodall in her elegant 1986 text leaves them, and for those interested in the dynamics of the Gombe chimps, much of interest can be found here. These chapters are not just on chimps as predators, but also as personalities, and Stanford is careful to note the potential impact that individual characteristics can have on behaviour such as hunting. There are several other chapters where hunting styles and experience are integrated into the quantitative results. We are also given some of the first new data on the Gombe red colobus social groups, foraging ecology and ranging since Tim Clutton-Brock's thesis work of the early 1970s. These are continuously placed into a relevant comparative context, with Kibale in Uganda and Tana River in Kenya. West African studies are also integrated, and here we benefit from comparisons with both the colobus and the chimpanzees. The final chapters address the issue of "why do chimpanzees hunt" and return to the relations between predation and social structure in primates. Here, the role of multiple males in group defence against predators is clearly highlighted as a major selective force promoting male sociality.

The chimpanzee predators of Gombe are affecting the population of red colobus. They influence reproductive rate, group spacing and foraging, and promote high numbers of affiliative and co-operative males. As hunters, the chimps work together but hunting also appears to affect chimpanzee male status relationships. In this context, chimp males hunt not for nutrients but for power and enhanced access to females. One is left asking just how different they are from humans?