Elizabeth Lonsdorf

Journal article Genes and immunity · December 2025 In primates, mechanisms of both innate and adaptive immunity are well-studied in just a few species out of this very diverse taxonomic order, especially in relation to specific pathogens like SIV. Recent research has indicated there may be taxon-specific d ... Full text Cite

Socially integrated female chimpanzees have lower offspring mortality.

Journal article iScience · July 2025 In humans and other social mammals, more socially connected females often have higher fitness. Yet evidence linking female sociality to offspring survival remains inconsistent, and is limited to a handful of primate species in which females depend on close ... Full text Cite

Socially integrated female chimpanzees have lower offspring mortality

Preprint · 2025 Summary In humans and other social mammals, more socially connected females often have higher fitness. Yet evidence linking female sociality to offspring survival remains inconsistent, and is limited to a handful of primate species in which femal ... Full text Cite

Sex differences in health burdens across the lifespan in wild chimpanzees (<i>Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii</i>).

Journal article Evolution, medicine, and public health · January 2025 Background and objectivesUnderstanding health and aging in one of our closest relatives, wild chimpanzees, provides key insights into the evolutionary origins of human disease risk. In humans, females often experience higher rates of disease than ... Full text Cite

Barriers to chimpanzee gene flow at the south-east edge of their distribution.

Journal article Molecular ecology · July 2023 Populations on the edge of a species' distribution may represent an important source of adaptive diversity, yet these populations tend to be more fragmented and are more likely to be geographically isolated. Lack of genetic exchanges between such populatio ... Full text Cite

The ecology and epidemiology of malaria parasitism in wild chimpanzee reservoirs.

Journal article Communications biology · September 2022 Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) harbor rich assemblages of malaria parasites, including three species closely related to P. falciparum (sub-genus Laverania), the most malignant human malaria parasite. Here, we characterize the ecology and epidemiology of mal ... Full text Cite

Drinking frequency in wild lactating chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and their offspring.

Journal article American journal of primatology · June 2022 Maintaining water balance is essential for organismal health, and lactating females must balance individual needs with milk production and offspring hydration. Primate milk is dilute and presumed to be the primary source for infant hydration for a consider ... Full text Cite

The Gombe Ecosystem Health Project: 16 years of program evolution and lessons learned.

Journal article American journal of primatology · May 2022 Infectious disease outbreaks pose a significant threat to the conservation of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and all threatened nonhuman primates. Characterizing and mitigating these threats to support the sustainability and welfare of wild populations is o ... Full text Cite

Female reproductive aging in seven primate species: Patterns and consequences.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · May 2022 Age-related changes in fertility have increasingly been documented in wild animal populations: In many species the youngest and oldest reproducers are disadvantaged relative to prime adults. How do these effects evolve, and what explains their diversity ac ... Full text Cite

Culture-enriched community profiling improves resolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota.

Journal article Molecular ecology resources · January 2022 Vertebrates harbour gut microbial communities containing hundreds of bacterial species, most of which have never been cultivated or isolated in the laboratory. The lack of cultured representatives from vertebrate gut microbiotas limits the description and ... Full text Cite

In vivo deciduous dental eruption in LuiKotale bonobos and Gombe chimpanzees.

Journal article American journal of physical anthropology · December 2021 ObjectivesExisting data on bonobo and chimpanzee dental eruption timing are derived predominantly from captive individuals or deceased wild individuals. However, recent advances in noninvasive photographic monitoring of living, wild apes have enab ... Full text Cite

Gregariousness is associated with parasite species richness in a community of wild chimpanzees.

Journal article Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · May 2021 Increased risk of pathogen transmission through proximity and contact is a well-documented cost of sociality. Affiliative social contact, however, is an integral part of primate group life and can benefit health. Despite its importance to the evolution and ... Full text Cite

Wild chimpanzee offspring exhibit adult-like foraging patterns around the age of weaning.

Journal article American journal of physical anthropology · May 2021 ObjectivesThe prolonged juvenile period exhibited by primates is an evolutionary conundrum. Here we examine wild chimpanzee feeding development in the context of two hypotheses regarding prolonged development in primates: the needing-to-learn hypo ... Full text Cite

The ontogeny of termite gathering among chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo.

Journal article American journal of physical anthropology · February 2021 ObjectivesAcquiring tool-assisted foraging skills can potentially improve dietary quality and increase fitness for wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In contrast to chimpanzees in East and West Africa, chimpanzees in the Congo Basin use tool sets ... Full text Cite

Maternal death and offspring fitness in multiple wild primates.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · January 2021 Primate offspring often depend on their mothers well beyond the age of weaning, and offspring that experience maternal death in early life can suffer substantial reductions in fitness across the life span. Here, we leverage data from eight wild primate pop ... Full text Cite

Why chimpanzees carry dead infants: an empirical assessment of existing hypotheses.

Journal article Royal Society open science · July 2020 The study of non-human primate thanatology has expanded dramatically in recent years as scientists seek to understand the evolutionary roots of human death concepts and practices. However, observations of how conspecifics respond to dead individuals are ra ... Full text Cite

Why chimpanzees carry dead infants: an empirical assessment of existing hypotheses

Journal article Royal Society Open Science · July 1, 2020 The study of non-human primate thanatology has expanded dramatically in recent years as scientists seek to understand the evolutionary roots of human death concepts and practices. However, observations of how conspecifics respond to dead individuals are ra ... Full text Cite

Sources of variation in weaned age among wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

Journal article American journal of physical anthropology · March 2020 ObjectivesA key feature of human life history evolution is that modern humans wean their infants 2-4 years earlier on average than African apes. However, our understanding of weaning variation in apes remains limited. Here we provide the first suc ... Full text Cite

Wild bonobo and chimpanzee females exhibit broadly similar patterns of behavioral maturation but some evidence for divergence.

Journal article American journal of physical anthropology · January 2020 ObjectivesPrimates exhibit variation in rates of growth and development. Variation in female growth and development across ape species appears to be explained by the Ecological Risk Aversion Hypothesis (ERAH). Indeed, existing data on variation in ... Full text Cite

A competitive drive? Same-sex attentional preferences in capuchins.

Journal article American journal of primatology · July 2019 In primates, faces provide information about several characteristics of social significance, including age, physical health, and biological sex. However, despite a growing literature on face processing and visual attention in a number of primate species, p ... Full text Cite

CD4 receptor diversity in chimpanzees protects against SIV infection.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · February 2019 Human and simian immunodeficiency viruses (HIV/SIVs) use CD4 as the primary receptor to enter target cells. Here, we show that the chimpanzee CD4 is highly polymorphic, with nine coding variants present in wild populations, and that this diversity interfer ... Full text Cite

Parental habituation to human disturbance over time reduces fear of humans in coyote offspring.

Journal article Ecology and evolution · December 2018 A fundamental tenet of maternal effects assumes that maternal variance over time should have discordant consequences for offspring traits across litters. Yet, seldom are parents observed across multiple reproductive bouts, with few studies considering anth ... Full text Cite

CHIIMP: An automated high-throughput microsatellite genotyping platform reveals greater allelic diversity in wild chimpanzees.

Journal article Ecology and evolution · August 2018 Short tandem repeats (STRs), also known as microsatellites, are commonly used to noninvasively genotype wild-living endangered species, including African apes. Until recently, capillary electrophoresis has been the method of choice to determine the length ... Full text Cite

Socioecological correlates of clinical signs in two communities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

Journal article American journal of primatology · January 2018 Disease and other health hazards pose serious threats to the persistence of wild ape populations. The total chimpanzee population at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, has declined from an estimated 120 to 150 individuals in the 1960's to around 100 individual ... Full text Cite

Destabilization of the gut microbiome marks the end-stage of simian immunodeficiency virus infection in wild chimpanzees.

Journal article American journal of primatology · January 2018 Enteric dysbiosis is a characteristic feature of progressive human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection but has not been observed in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVmac)-infected macaques, including in animals with end-stage disease. This has ... Full text Cite

The relationship between social play and developmental milestones in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).

Journal article American journal of primatology · December 2017 Social play is common among many group-living animals, but the benefits are not well understood. Proposed benefits include increased muscle coordination as the result of increased locomotor versatility and development, and strengthened social bonds through ... Full text Cite

Do juveniles help or hinder? Influence of juvenile offspring on maternal behavior and reproductive outcomes in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Journal article Journal of human evolution · October 2017 Compared to great apes, humans maintain a relatively rapid reproductive pace despite long periods of dependency. This seemingly contradictory set of traits is made possible by weaning offspring before nutritional independence and alloparents who help provi ... Full text Cite

Predation by female chimpanzees: Toward an understanding of sex differences in meat acquisition in the last common ancestor of Pan and Homo.

Journal article Journal of human evolution · September 2017 Among modern foraging societies, men hunt more than women, who mostly target relatively low-quality, reliable resources (i.e., plants). This difference has long been assumed to reflect human female reproductive constraints, particularly caring for and prov ... Full text Cite

Maternal rank influences the outcome of aggressive interactions between immature chimpanzees.

Journal article Animal behaviour · February 2015 For many long-lived mammalian species, extended maternal investment has a profound effect on offspring integration in complex social environments. One component of this investment may be aiding young in aggressive interactions, which can set the stage for ... Full text Open Access Cite

Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · December 2014 In many mammals, early social experience is critical to developing species-appropriate adult behaviors. Although mother-infant interactions play an undeniably significant role in social development, other individuals in the social milieu may also influence ... Full text Open Access Cite

Rapid changes in the gut microbiome during human evolution.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · November 2014 Humans are ecosystems containing trillions of microorganisms, but the evolutionary history of this microbiome is obscured by a lack of knowledge about microbiomes of African apes. We sequenced the gut communities of hundreds of chimpanzees, bonobos, and go ... Full text Cite

Maternal Behavior by Birth Order in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Increased Investment by First-Time Mothers.

Journal article Current anthropology · August 2014 Parental investment theory predicts that maternal resources are finite and allocated among offspring based on factors including maternal age and condition, and offspring sex and parity. Among humans, firstborn children are often considered to have an advan ... Full text Cite

Primate energy expenditure and life history.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · January 2014 Humans and other primates are distinct among placental mammals in having exceptionally slow rates of growth, reproduction, and aging. Primates' slow life history schedules are generally thought to reflect an evolved strategy of allocating energy away from ... Full text Cite

SIV-induced instability of the chimpanzee gut microbiome.

Journal article Cell host & microbe · September 2013 Simian immunodeficiency virus of chimpanzees (SIVcpz) is the ancestor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the etiologic agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. Like HIV-1-infected humans, SIVcpz-infected chimpanzees can de ... Full text Cite

Great ape genetic diversity and population history.

Journal article Nature · July 2013 Most great ape genetic variation remains uncharacterized; however, its study is critical for understanding population history, recombination, selection and susceptibility to disease. Here we sequence to high coverage a total of 79 wild- and captive-born in ... Full text Cite