# Hunting Activity Among Naturalistically Housed Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at the Fundació Mona (Girona, Spain). Predation, Occasional Consumption and Strategies in Rehabilitated Animals

## TL;DR

Chimpanzees in a naturalistic captive environment at Fundació Mona exhibited hunting behaviors, showing they can perform this wild behavior without prior experience.

## Contribution

This study provides novel evidence of naturalistic hunting behavior in rehabilitated chimpanzees with no prior exposure to such activities.

## Key findings

- Five instances of predatory behavior were observed in rehabilitated chimpanzees.
- One cooperative hunting event showed roles like pursuers and ambushers.
- Chimpanzees partially consumed prey in some cases but not in the social hunting event.

## Abstract

Hunting is well documented in wild chimpanzees, but has rarely been documented in captive chimpanzees. At Fundació Mona Primate Rescue we have obtained evidence of five episodes of hunting in rehabilitated chimpanzees who had no previous experience of these types of behaviors. This demonstrated that they were able to perform this species-typical behavior in a naturalistic environment without learning it in the wild.

Predatory behavior in wild chimpanzees and other primates has been well documented over the last 30 years. However, as it is an opportunistic behavior, conditions which may promote such behavior are left up to chance. Until now, predatory behavior among captive chimpanzees has been poorly documented. In this paper, we present five instances providing evidence of predatory behavior: four performed by isolated individuals and one carried out in cooperation. The evidence of group predation involved the chimpanzees adopting different roles as pursuers and ambushers. Prey was partially eaten in some cases, but not in the social episode. This study confirms that naturalistic environments allow chimpanzees to enhance species-typical behavioral patterns.