Overview
- An iScience paper reports that risky locomotion in wild chimps peaks in later infancy and declines through youth and adolescence.
- Older infants were about three times more likely than adults to leap or drop with no support, with juveniles 2.5 times and adolescents about 2.1 times more likely.
- The team analyzed videotaped “free flight” movements from 119 Ngogo chimpanzees in Uganda, defining risk as intentional drops or fully unsupported leaps.
- There were no significant sex differences at any age, and risk levels were not explained by how high animals were above the ground.
- The authors propose that differences in parental and alloparental supervision shape human patterns of physical risk-taking, with risky play in young chimps possibly serving locomotor practice when injuries are less severe.