Wild Chimpanzee Respiratory Illness Risk Factors Over 22 Years

27% of chimpanzee deaths in the Kanyawara community over 30 years were attributed to respiratory illness, making it the leading cause of mortality. This dataset contains over 22 years of health observations on individual susceptibility and transmission patterns, with respiratory signs peaking conspicuously in March. The data was collected by Melissa Emery Thompson to investigate factors influencing disease in wild chimpanzees.

Use Cases

• Analyze seasonal patterns of respiratory illness, particularly the conspicuous peak in March, to identify environmental or social drivers.
• Investigate individual susceptibility by examining the prevalence of respiratory signs across age groups, especially among older adults and low-ranking males aged 10-20.
• Model mortality causes to understand why respiratory illness contributed to 27% of deaths over a 30-year period, excluding juveniles.
• Compare rates of respiratory illness in chimpanzees with seasonal disease rates in a nearby human village to study cross-species transmission dynamics.
• Study the relationship between social rank and health by analyzing respiratory sign frequency among males during the transition to adulthood.

Strengths

• Contains over 22 years of longitudinal health observations on a wild chimpanzee community.
• Provides specific mortality data, identifying respiratory illness as the cause of 27% of deaths over a 30-year period.
• Captures detailed individual-level factors like age, sex, and social rank in relation to disease signs.
• Focuses on a significant and understudied wildlife health issue with implications for conservation and comparative medicine.

Limitations

• The specific data structure, column count, and row count are unknown, limiting immediate analytical readiness.
• Observational data from a single chimpanzee community may limit generalizability to other populations or species.
• The description notes patterns that could not be explained by modeled factors (climate, diet, human exposure), indicating complex, unresolved variables.

Provenance

Source

Dryad digital repository.

Collection Method

Long-term health observations of the Kanyawara community of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).

Time Range

Over 22 years of observation data; mortality analysis spans 30 years.

Freshness

Last updated in June 2020.

Geography

Kanyawara chimpanzee community, Uganda.