The low frequency of observations of consort pairs may reflect a tendency on the part
of such couples to keep quiet and thus avoid detection. It also undoubtedly reflects the
difficulty of seeing them in the continuous forest of Budongo. As with patrolling, it is
very hard to document consortships in the forest. So it is impossible to say how frequent
consortships may be in the Sonso community.
Boesch and Boesch-Achermann (2000: 76–8) echo the difficulty of determining
consortships in the forest habitat at Taï; from the cases they did observe they conclude
that consortship as a strategy has ‘low success’ compared with other strategies for
impregnating females. They state that at Taï, 50% of males and 56% of females never
went on a consortship (over a 15-year period). At Kanyawara (Kibale Forest) also,
consortships are recorded occasionally, based on simultaneous absence of certain males
and cycling females; such mutual absences have lasted up to three months (R. Wrangham,
pers. comm.).
Kinship
A common organizing principle in mammalian societies is kinship (Fig. 5.5). Matrilines
were first described in wild Japananese macaques by Kawai (1958) and other members
of the team of primatologists brought together by Kinji Imanishi.
100 Social organization
Fig. 5.5: Nambi with her offspring. L–R: Nora, Nambi, Night, Musa (photo: S. O’Hara).