Mechanisms of life-history trade-offs and the implications for pace of life in bonobos (Pan paniscus)

• Applicant: Dr. Verena Behringer
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology ; Animal Physiology and Biochemistry
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458726363

According to the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis, life history (LH), behaviour, and physiological traits a single integrated phenotype. This individual phenotype is expected to vary along a fast-slow-continuum. However, environmental and sex differences influence these traits to varying degrees. Low resource availability and high mortality exposure determine the possibility of a population or an individual to accelerate pace-of-life (POL), and these conditions differentiate captive and wild populations. Sex differences in reproductive strategies determine POL, and ignoring these systematic sex-specificities can limit the detection and thus the conclusion about variability of POLS. To date, the POLS hypothesis has been tested predominantly in animal species with fast LHs, and most have neglected environmental conditions and sex-specificities. The aim of the project is to identify individual POLS phenotypes in a long-lived mammal, and test hypotheses about trait plasticity in relation to sex specific and environmental circumstances. Building on an existing longitudinal, individual-based dataset of wild and captive bonobos (Pan paniscus), somatic growth, and a magnitude of physiological markers quantified in urine and hair samples will be used to define individual POLS phenotypes and environmental conditions.This study will be the first to quantify individual POLS phenotypes and their plasticity in relation to sex specific and environmental circumstances in a long-lived mammal. By comparing wild and captive bonobo populations I will test if systematic environmental differences on the individual level along a fast-slow continuum generate environment specific POL patterns. Also, I will test broad hypotheses on sex-specific POLS, and investigate if sex-specific patterns in POLS are affected differently by selection pressures. The outcomes of this study are crucial for understanding constraints in the expression and plasticity of individual LH characteristics. Understanding POLS in relation to sex and environment in a species closely related to humans will contribute to theory about the evolution of POLS in long-lived species, and inform hypotheses about the changes to LH during the evolution of modern humans. Recognizing these evolutionary forces and constraints that shape physiological mechanisms will facilitate our understanding of health and disease and the challenges long-lived primates have to face with climate change and habitat loss.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants