NEW YORK (June 21, 2010)-The nations of East and Central Africa have developed a 10-year action plan to save one of humankind's closest relatives-the eastern chimpanzee-from hunting, habitat loss, disease, and other threats, according to an announcement made today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The ambitious plan-titled "Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: 2010-2020"-calls for the conservation of 16 core areas which if protected would conserve 96% of the known populations of eastern chimpanzees.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/wcs-anc062110.php

A new publication - Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes
schweinfurthii):

Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan 20102020 is now up on the
PSG website.

It is the result of a workshop led by WCS Andrew Plumptre and
colleagues in collaboration of numerous organizations, including the
IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group.

http://www.primate-sg.org/action.plans.htm

Plumptre, A.J., Rose, R., Nangendo, G., Williamson, E.A., Didier, K.,
Hart, J., Mulindahabi, F., Hicks, C., Griffin, B., Ogawa, H., Nixon,
S., Pintea, L., Vosper, A., McClennan, M., Amsini, F., McNeilage, A.,
Makana, J.R., Kanamori, M., Hernandez, A., Piel, A., Stewart, F.,
Moore, J., Zamma, K., Nakamura, M., Kamenya, S., Idani, G., Sakamaki,
T., Yoshikawa, M., Greer, D., Tranquilli, S., Beyers, R., Furuichi,
T., Hashimoto, C. and Bennett, E.

(2010). Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): Status
Survey and Conservation Action Plan 20102020. Gland, Switzerland:
IUCN. 52pp.

Kanngiesser P & Call J (2010) Bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang utans use feature and spatial cues in two spatial memory tasks, Animal Cognition, 13, 3, 419-430

Abstract:

Animals commonly use feature and spatial strategies when remembering places of interest such as food sources or hiding places. We conducted three experiments with great apes to investigate strategy preferences and factors that may shape them. In the first experiment, we trained 17 apes to remember 12 different food locations on the floor of their sleeping room. The 12 food locations were associated with one feature cue, so that feature and spatial cues were confounded. In a single test session, we brought the cues into conflict and found that apes, irrespective of species, showed a preference for a feature strategy. In the second experiment, we used a similar procedure and trained 25 apes to remember one food location on a platform in front of them. On average, apes preferred to use a feature strategy but some individuals relied on a spatial strategy. In the final experiment, we investigated whether training might influence strategy preferences. We tested 21 apes in the platform set-up and found that apes used both, feature and spatial strategies irrespective of training. We conclude that apes can use feature and spatial strategies to remember the location of hidden food items, but that task demands (e.g. different numbers of search locations) can influence strategy preferences. We found no evidence, however, for the role of training in shaping these preferences

C Boesch, C Bolé, N Eckhardt, H Boesch (2010) Altruism in Forest Chimpanzees: The Case of Adoption. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8901. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008901

In recent years, extended altruism towards unrelated group members has been proposed to be a unique characteristic of human societies. Support for this proposal seemingly came from experimental studies on captive chimpanzees that showed that individuals were limited in the ways they shared or cooperated with others. This dichotomy between humans and chimpanzees was proposed to indicate an important difference between the two species, and one study concluded that "chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members". In strong contrast with these captive studies, consistent observations of potentially altruistic behaviors in different populations of wild chimpanzees have been reported in such different domains as food sharing, regular use of coalitions, cooperative hunting and border patrolling. This begs the question of what socio-ecological factors favor the evolution of altruism. Here we report 18 cases of adoption, a highly costly behavior, of orphaned youngsters by group members in Taï forest chimpanzees. Half of the adoptions were done by males and remarkably only one of these proved to be the father. Such adoptions by adults can last for years and thus imply extensive care towards the orphans. These observations reveal that, under the appropriate socio-ecologic conditions, chimpanzees do care for the welfare of other unrelated group members and that altruism is more extensive in wild populations than was suggested by captive studies.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008901

Science Daily - The population of chimpanzees across
western Africa has decreased by 75% in the past 30 years, due in  
part to widespread chimp hunting. New strategies are needed to curb this  
illegal activity, experts say.


Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology
suggests that genetics may provide valuable clues as to how to crack
down on the animal smuggling trade, while also helping to safely
reintroduce rescued apes into the wild.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100122002338.htm

Shinya Yamamoto, Masayuki Tanaka. 2010. The influence of kin relationship and reciprocal context on chimpanzees' other-regarding preferences. Animal Behaviour, 79, 595-602

We investigated the evolutionary origin of other-regarding preferences, one of the strong underlying motivations for altruism, in the chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes. Although altruism is expected theoretically to be kin biased and frequent in a reciprocal context, few experimental studies to date have specifically tested these hypotheses from the viewpoint of proximate mechanisms. We examined the other-regarding preferences of individuals in mother-offspring pairs and in nonkin adult pairs in both reciprocal and nonreciprocal contexts. Based on the previously established choice paradigm with mutually or selfishly beneficial options, we developed a novel task using buttons. In experiment 1, chimpanzee participants involving three mother-offspring pairs were offered two options: delivering food rewards to their partner and themselves or only to themselves.We compared their choices between partner-present and partner-absent conditions. In experiment 2, we developed a reciprocal context in which the two participants alternately chose the two options. In contrast to the theoretical predictions, the chimpanzees did not show any prosocial tendencies even between mother and offspring or in a reciprocal context. We propose that the experimental set-up which prevented direct interactions between the participants might have influenced these results. In conclusion, the present study suggests that voluntary and/or strategic other-rewarding behaviour arose in humans after divergence from the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees.

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622782/description#description