Charting the neglected West: The social system of Guinea baboons.

Objectives: Primate social systems are remarkably diverse, and thus play a central role in understanding social evolution, including the biological origin of human societies. Although baboons have been prominently featured in this context, historically little was known about the westernmost member of the genus, the Guinea baboon (Papio papio).

Material And Methods: Here, we summarize the findings from the first years of observations at the field site CRP Simenti in the Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal.

Sex and friendship in a multilevel society: behavioural patterns and associations between female and male Guinea baboons.

One key question in social evolution is the identification of factors that promote the formation and maintenance of stable bonds between females and males beyond the mating context. Baboons lend themselves to examine this question, as they vary in social organisation and male-female association patterns. We report the results from the first systematic observations of individually identified wild female Guinea baboons.

Mother-offspring transmission and age-dependent accumulation of simian foamy virus in wild chimpanzees.

Simian foamy viruses (SFVs) are thought to infect virtually any adult nonhuman primate (NHP). While many data have accumulated about patterns of codivergence with their hosts and cross-species transmission events, little is known about the modalities of SFV transmission within NHP species, especially in the wild. Here we provide a detailed investigation of the dynamics of SFV circulation in a wild community of Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus).

Detection of retroviral super-infection from non-invasive samples.

While much attention has been focused on the molecular epidemiology of retroviruses in wild primate populations, the correlated question of the frequency and nature of super-infection events, i.e., the simultaneous infection of the same individual host with several strains of the same virus, has remained largely neglected.

Wild chimpanzees infected with 5 Plasmodium species.

Data are missing on the diversity of Plasmodium spp. infecting apes that live in their natural habitat, with limited possibility of human-mosquito-ape exchange. We surveyed Plasmodium spp.

High prevalence, coinfection rate, and genetic diversity of retroviruses in wild red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus badius badius) in Tai National Park, Cote d'Ivoire.

Simian retroviruses are precursors of all human retroviral pathogens. However, little is known about the prevalence and coinfection rates or the genetic diversity of major retroviruses-simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), simian T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (STLV-1), and simian foamy virus (SFV)-in wild populations of nonhuman primates. Such information would contribute to the understanding of the natural history of retroviruses in various host species.