| These are the descendants of Melissa as of
2005. More recent
births will be recorded as they occur. To learn more click
on the chimpanzees marked with a star and read their biography,
see pictures, or watch video of them in action.
These family trees show the descendents of each female. Human
family trees usually show the father as well as the mother,
but these chimpanzee trees don't show the father. For any given
pregnancy, chimpanzees females usually mate with many males.
It is therefore usually impossible to tell from behavior alone
who the father is. Only recently have we been able to use DNA
testing to identify fathers. Fifi has had eight children, and
each one had a different father. For instance, we now know that
Frodo was the father of his half-brother Fred! Such close inbreeding,
however, is very unusual. In most chimpanzee populations, females
leave their community at adolescence to join a new community.
By doing so, they avoid mating with their father and brothers.
Gombe is unusual in that about half of all females stay in the
community in which they were born. Fifi and Fanni, for example,
both stayed in their mother's community. Flossi, however, now
lives in the Mitumba community. |
