Dataset Information

Innovation in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

ABSTRACT: Innovation is the ability to solve novel problems or find novel solutions to familiar problems, and it is known to affect fitness in both human and non-human animals. In primates, innovation has been mostly studied in captivity, although differences in living conditions may affect individuals' ability to innovate. Here, we tested innovation in a wild group of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). In four different conditions, we presented the group with several identical foraging boxes containing food. To understand which individual characteristics and behavioural strategies best predicted innovation rate, we measured the identity of the individuals manipulating the boxes and retrieving the food, and their behaviour during the task. Our results showed that success in the novel task was mainly affected by the experimental contingencies and the behavioural strategies used during the task. Individuals were more successful in the 1-step conditions, if they participated in more trials, showed little latency to approach the boxes and mainly manipulated functional parts of the box. In contrast, we found no effect of inhibition, social facilitation and individual characteristics like sex, age, rank, centrality, neophobia and reaction to humans, on the individuals' ability to innovate.

SUBMITTER: Amici F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7067846 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Innovation in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

Amici Federica F Caicoya Alvaro L AL Majolo Bonaventura B Widdig Anja A

Scientific reports 20200312 1

Innovation is the ability to solve novel problems or find novel solutions to familiar problems, and it is known to affect fitness in both human and non-human animals. In primates, innovation has been mostly studied in captivity, although differences in living conditions may affect individuals' ability to innovate. Here, we tested innovation in a wild group of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). In four different conditions, we presented the group with several identical foraging boxes containing ...[more]

PMID: 32165675

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Project description:Social animals have to coordinate activities and collective movements to benefit from the advantages of group living. Animals in large groups maintain cohesion by self-organization processes whereas in smaller groups consensus decisions can be reached. Where consensus decisions are relevant leadership may emerge. Variation in the organization of collective movements has been linked to variation in female social tolerance among macaque species ranging from despotic to egalitarian. Here we investigated the processes underlying group movements in a wild macaque species characterized by a degree of social tolerance intermediate to previously studied congeneric species. We focused on processes before, during and after the departure of the first individual. To this end, we observed one group of wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in the Middle Atlas, Morocco using all-occurrence behaviour sampling of 199 collective movements. We found that initiators of a collective movement usually chose the direction in which more individuals displayed pre-departure behavior. Dominant individuals contributed to group movements more than subordinates, especially juveniles, measured as frequencies of successful initiations and pre-departure behaviour. Joining was determined by affiliative relationships and the number of individuals that already joined the movement (mimetism). Thus, in our study group partially shared consensus decisions mediated by selective mimetism seemed to be prevalent, overall supporting the suggestion that a species' social style affects the organization of group movements. As only the most tolerant species show equally shared consensus decisions whereas in others the decision is partially shared with a bias to dominant individuals the type of consensus decisions seems to follow a stepwise relation. Joining order may also follow a stepwise, however opposite, relationship, because dominance only determined joining in highly despotic, but not in intermediate and tolerant species.

Project description:BackgroundFacial expressions convey key cues of human emotions, and may also be important for interspecies interactions. The universality hypothesis suggests that six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) should be expressed by similar facial expressions in close phylogenetic species such as humans and nonhuman primates. However, some facial expressions have been shown to differ in meaning between humans and nonhuman primates like macaques. This ambiguity in signalling emotion can lead to an increased risk of aggression and injuries for both humans and animals. This raises serious concerns for activities such as wildlife tourism where humans closely interact with wild animals. Understanding what factors (i.e., experience and type of emotion) affect ability to recognise emotional state of nonhuman primates, based on their facial expressions, can enable us to test the validity of the universality hypothesis, as well as reduce the risk of aggression and potential injuries in wildlife tourism.MethodsThe present study investigated whether different levels of experience of Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus, affect the ability to correctly assess different facial expressions related to aggressive, distressed, friendly or neutral states, using an online questionnaire. Participants' level of experience was defined as either: (1) naïve: never worked with nonhuman primates and never or rarely encountered live Barbary macaques; (2) exposed: shown pictures of the different Barbary macaques' facial expressions along with the description and the corresponding emotion prior to undertaking the questionnaire; (3) expert: worked with Barbary macaques for at least two months.ResultsExperience with Barbary macaques was associated with better performance in judging their emotional state. Simple exposure to pictures of macaques' facial expressions improved the ability of inexperienced participants to better discriminate neutral and distressed faces, and a trend was found for aggressive faces. However, these participants, even when previously exposed to pictures, had difficulties in recognising aggressive, distressed and friendly faces above chance level.DiscussionThese results do not support the universality hypothesis as exposed and naïve participants had difficulties in correctly identifying aggressive, distressed and friendly faces. Exposure to facial expressions improved their correct recognition. In addition, the findings suggest that providing simple exposure to 2D pictures (for example, information signs explaining animals' facial signalling in zoos or animal parks) is not a sufficient educational tool to reduce tourists' misinterpretations of macaque emotion. Additional measures, such as keeping a safe distance between tourists and wild animals, as well as reinforcing learning via videos or supervised visits led by expert guides, could reduce such issues and improve both animal welfare and tourist experience.

Dataset Information

Innovation in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

Publications

Innovation in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).

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