Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic profiling of chimpanzees and other primate hairs in Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda

Stable isotope analysis is a widely used tool in primate ecology for investigating diet and environment, with numerous studies focusing on chimpanzees. However, few studies have explored the dietary niche of chimpanzees in comparison to other primates or examined intra-individual dietary variability. This limitation hinders the understanding of the comparability of isotopic data with the wealth of behavioral observational data in primate ecology. In this study, we report the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of hairs from wild chimpanzees and four other primate species in the Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda. Bulk analysis revealed that both plant foods and chimpanzees in Kalinzu exhibited lower carbon isotope ratios than expected for the region’s rainfall. Additionally, preliminary compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids was conducted, revealing that chimpanzees in Kalinzu have a lower degree of faunivory than the sympatric Cercopithecus primates. Furthermore, ultra-fine sectioning of a hair sample was conducted to investigate dietary variation over daily to weekly timescales. In one adult male chimpanzee, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios fluctuated by more than 1‰ within approximately 10 days. These findings highlight the importance of recognizing uncontrolled ecological variability and hidden intra-individual dietary changes when interpreting stable isotope data in relation to behavior and environmental traits.