alienate him, leading to challenges in the future. However, MA may have been flattered
(if we can use such a word, and maybe we can) by the attentions of the younger male
ZF. We have a similar case from Gombe in Goblin’s relationship to Figan (Goodall
1986: 431); in such cases the younger male gains status more rapidly by associating
with dominant males than he would otherwise do. ZF did rise in rank after the events of
1999 but he had a setback in September 2000 when he got all four fingers of his right
hand caught in a snare; for some time he was preoccupied with trying to remove the
snare which was fixed tightly round his fingers. He did manage to remove it (with the
loss of his two central fingers) and has since become a vigorous medium-ranking young
male with the potential to rise higher in the future.
MA, meanwhile, has remained the beta male in the Sonso community, while DN
remains alpha and BK remains gamma. Since the events of 1999 described above, how-
ever, there was a period in 2000 when MA seemed to be using his special relationship
with DN to achieve a status sufficiently high to begin to worry DN. As a result, for a
time, DN and MA’s alliance fell apart and DN began to increase his association with the
fourth ranking male, JM. This was sufficient to alert MA to the dangers of pushing
ahead too far too fast and he ceased doing so, remaining very much the beta male. Had
he not done so, there is a danger that BK would have dominated him, because MA was
at that time not enjoying the support of DN.
These details give us a good insight into the ever-fluctuating status competition
between chimpanzee males. This competitiveness is, however, very much tempered by
affiliative tendencies expressed in grooming, and by co-operative actions in respect of
both hunting and territorial defence.
Undoubtedly it is the close ties between the adult males that moderate the amount of
physical violence they show in their competition with one another. This is evident from
their tendency to groom each other frequently and for long periods which helps to
prevent their relationships from sliding into hostility. But beneath the closeness is a
competitive dimension which determines their all-important access to oestrous females,
as we showed earlier in this chapter.
Reconciliation
Arnold (2001) demonstrated reconciliation for the first time in wild chimpanzees at
Sonso. Although reconciliation was not common, she found it mostly occurred between
pairs of individuals that had strong affiliative relationships. This supports the idea that
when a pair of individuals value their relationship highly, they are quick to reconcile
after a tiff. It might therefore be expected that males would reconcile with each other
more readily than with females, because males have very close relationships, support
their alliance partners, and act co-operatively in a number of contexts such as territorial
defence and hunting. However, Arnold found this not to be the case at Sonso. Arnold
and Whiten (2001) discuss post-conflict behaviour in the Sonso community, showing
that in contrast to captive chimpanzees, individuals at Sonso did not reconcile with each
other often (the mean conciliatory tendency was 12.3% of conflicts in Budongo as
130 Social behaviour and relationships