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Bridgeland-Stephens L, Thorpe SKS, Chappell J. Potential resilience treatments for orangutans ( Pongo spp.): Lessons from a scoping review of interventions in humans and other animals. Anim Welf 2023; 32:e77. [PMID: 38487448 PMCID: PMC10937215 DOI: 10.1017/awf.2023.97] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Wild orangutans (Pongo spp.) rescued from human-wildlife conflict must be adequately rehabilitated before being returned to the wild. It is essential that released orangutans are able to cope with stressful challenges such as food scarcity, navigating unfamiliar environments, and regaining independence from human support. Although practical skills are taught to orangutans in rehabilitation centres, post-release survival rates are low. Psychological resilience, or the ability to 'bounce back' from stress, may be a key missing piece of the puzzle. However, there is very little knowledge about species-appropriate interventions which could help captive orangutans increase resilience to stress. This scoping review summarises and critically analyses existing human and non-human animal resilience literature and provides suggestions for the development of interventions for orangutans in rehabilitation. Three scientific databases were searched in 2021 and 2023, resulting in 63 human studies and 266 non-human animal studies. The first section brings together human resilience interventions, identifying common themes and assessing the applicability of human interventions to orangutans in rehabilitation. The second section groups animal interventions into categories of direct stress, separation stress, environmental conditions, social stress, and exercise. In each category, interventions are critically analysed to evaluate their potential for orangutans in rehabilitation. The results show that mild and manageable forms of intervention have the greatest potential benefit with the least amount of risk. The study concludes by emphasising the need for further investigation and experimentation, to develop appropriate interventions and measure their effect on the post-release survival rate of orangutans.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jackie Chappell
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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Sex-mediated changes in foraging behaviour according to breeding stage in a monomorphic seabird adapted to rural habitats. Anim Behav 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
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Cooke AC, Davidson GL, van Oers K, Quinn JL. Motivation, accuracy and positive feedback through experience explain innovative problem solving and its repeatability. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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Animal Creativity as a Function of Behavioral Innovation and Behavior Flexibility in Problem-solving Situations. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2021; 56:218-233. [PMID: 33733318 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-020-09586-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/26/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
A natural approach of animal creativity through insightful problem-solving may offer a panel of how physiological, contextual, cultural and developmental variables related to each other to produce new behaviors. The spontaneous interconnection of acquire behaviors is an Insightful Problem-Solving model based on the new combination and/or chaining of behaviors that were previously and independently trained. This model seems to offer an integrative alternative for the studies of Innovation and Behavioral Flexibility because it allows the research on innovation in a scenario in which the response that solves the problem situation is not available by trial-and-error. Measuring task-appropriateness by behavior flexibility and novelty by behavior innovation under insightful problem-solving paradigm can contribute for the integration of decades of evidence in Cognitive Psychology, Neuro-ethology, Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Neurosciences. The Insightful Problem-Solving allows the independent test of behavioral innovation and behavioral flexibility as it measures the behavioral innovation inside insightful test and tests if the BF depends on variables arranged in the problem-situation and/or on the previous training (e.g. familiarity with access to appetitive stimulus in the pre-test, the number of distinct behaviors trained, and contingency changes in the post-test).
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Zidar J, Balogh ACV, Leimar O, Løvlie H. Generalization of learned preferences covaries with behavioral flexibility in red junglefowl chicks. Behav Ecol 2019; 30:1375-1381. [PMID: 31579147 PMCID: PMC6765379 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2018] [Revised: 04/19/2019] [Accepted: 07/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between animal cognition and consistent among-individual behavioral differences (i.e., behavioral types, animal personality, or coping styles), has recently received increased research attention. Focus has mainly been on linking different behavioral types to performance in learning tasks. It has been suggested that behavioral differences could influence also how individuals use previously learnt information to generalize about new stimuli with similar properties. Nonetheless, this has rarely been empirically tested. Here, we therefore explore the possibility that individual variation in generalization is related to variation in behavioral types in red junglefowl chicks (Gallus gallus). We show that more behaviorally flexible chicks have a stronger preference for a novel stimulus that is intermediate between 2 learnt positive stimuli compared to more inflexible chicks. Thus, more flexible and inflexible chicks differ in how they generalize. Further, behavioral flexibility correlates with fearfulness, suggesting a coping style, supporting that variation in generalization is related to variation in behavioral types. How individuals generalize affects decision making and responses to novel situations or objects, and can thus have a broad influence on the life of an individual. Our results add to the growing body of evidence linking cognition to consistent behavioral differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josefina Zidar
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, IFM Biology, Linköping University, Campus Valla, inköping, Sweden
| | - Alexandra C V Balogh
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, IFM Biology, Linköping University, Campus Valla, inköping, Sweden
- Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Olof Leimar
- Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Hanne Løvlie
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, IFM Biology, Linköping University, Campus Valla, inköping, Sweden
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Mazza V, Jacob J, Dammhahn M, Zaccaroni M, Eccard JA. Individual variation in cognitive style reflects foraging and anti-predator strategies in a small mammal. Sci Rep 2019; 9:10157. [PMID: 31300696 PMCID: PMC6626059 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-46582-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Balancing foraging gain and predation risk is a fundamental trade-off in the life of animals. Individual strategies to acquire, process, store and use information to solve cognitive tasks are likely to affect speed and flexibility of learning, and ecologically relevant decisions regarding foraging and predation risk. Theory suggests a functional link between individual variation in cognitive style and behaviour (animal personality) via speed-accuracy and risk-reward trade-offs. We tested whether cognitive style and personality affect risk-reward trade-off decisions posed by foraging and predation risk. We exposed 21 bank voles (Myodes glareolus) that were bold, fast learning and inflexible and 18 voles that were shy, slow learning and flexible to outdoor enclosures with different risk levels at two food patches. We quantified individual food patch exploitation, foraging and vigilance behaviour. Although both types responded to risk, fast animals increasingly exploited both food patches, gaining access to more food and spending less time searching and exercising vigilance. Slow animals progressively avoided high-risk areas, concentrating foraging effort in the low-risk one, and devoting >50% of visit to vigilance. These patterns indicate that individual differences in cognitive style/personality are reflected in foraging and anti-predator decisions that underlie the individual risk-reward bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valeria Mazza
- Animal Ecology, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. .,Julius Kühn Institute, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Horticulture and Forests, Vertebrate Research, Münster, Germany. .,Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
| | - Jens Jacob
- Julius Kühn Institute, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Horticulture and Forests, Vertebrate Research, Münster, Germany
| | - Melanie Dammhahn
- Animal Ecology, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Marco Zaccaroni
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Jana A Eccard
- Animal Ecology, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
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Morgan TJH, Acerbi A, van Leeuwen EJC. Copy-the-majority of instances or individuals? Two approaches to the majority and their consequences for conformist decision-making. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0210748. [PMID: 30682728 PMCID: PMC6347471 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Accepted: 12/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolution is the product of the psychological mechanisms that underlie individual decision making. One commonly studied learning mechanism is a disproportionate preference for majority opinions, known as conformist transmission. While most theoretical and experimental work approaches the majority in terms of the number of individuals that perform a behaviour or hold a belief, some recent experimental studies approach the majority in terms of the number of instances a behaviour is performed. Here, we use a mathematical model to show that disagreement between these two notions of the majority can arise when behavioural variants are performed at different rates, with different salience or in different contexts (variant overrepresentation) and when a subset of the population act as demonstrators to the whole population (model biases). We also show that because conformist transmission changes the distribution of behaviours in a population, how observers approach the majority can cause populations to diverge, and that this can happen even when the two approaches to the majority agree with regards to which behaviour is in the majority. We discuss these results in light of existing findings, ranging from political extremism on twitter to studies of animal foraging behaviour. We conclude that the factors we considered (variant overrepresentation and model biases) are plausibly widespread. As such, it is important to understand how individuals approach the majority in order to understand the effects of majority influence in cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas J. H. Morgan
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Alberto Acerbi
- Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- University of St Andrews, Westburn Lane, St Andrews, Scotland
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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McCune KB, Jablonski P, Lee SI, Ha RR. Captive jays exhibit reduced problem-solving performance compared to wild conspecifics. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181311. [PMID: 30800378 PMCID: PMC6366215 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2018] [Accepted: 12/12/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Animal cognitive abilities are frequently quantified in strictly controlled settings, with laboratory-reared subjects. Results from these studies have merit for clarifying proximate mechanisms of performance and the potential upper limits of certain cognitive abilities. Researchers often assume that performance on laboratory-based assessments accurately represents the abilities of wild conspecifics, but this is infrequently tested. In this experiment, we quantified the performance of wild and captive corvid subjects on an extractive foraging task. We found that performance was not equivalent, and wild subjects were faster at problem-solving to extract the food reward. By contrast, there was no difference in the time it took for captive and wild solvers to repeat the behaviour to get additional food rewards (learning speed). Our findings differ from the few other studies that have statistically compared wild and captive performance on assessments of problem-solving and learning. This indicates that without explicitly testing it, we cannot assume that captive animal performance on experimental tasks can be generalized to the species as a whole. To better understand the causes and consequences of a variety of animal cognitive abilities, we should measure performance in the social and physical environment in which the ability in question evolved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelsey B. McCune
- Psychology Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Piotr Jablonski
- Laboratory of Behavioral Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
- Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Sang-im Lee
- Laboratory of Behavioral Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
- Daegu-Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology School of Undergraduate Studies, Daegu, South Korea
| | - Renee R. Ha
- Psychology Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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Henke-von der Malsburg J, Fichtel C. Are generalists more innovative than specialists? A comparison of innovative abilities in two wild sympatric mouse lemur species. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:180480. [PMID: 30225037 PMCID: PMC6124029 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 07/09/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The propensity to flexibly innovate behavioural variants might advantage animals when dealing with novel or modified ecological or social challenges. Interspecific innovative abilities can be predicted by the degree of ecological generalism and intraspecific variation is predicted by personality traits. To examine the effects of these factors on innovation, we compared problem-solving abilities in the generalist grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) and the more specialized Madame Berthe's mouse lemurs (Microcebus berthae) in western Madagascar. We examined personality traits by testing 54 individuals in open field and novel object tests, and we assessed problem-solving abilities by presenting an artificial feeding-box that could be opened by three different techniques. The first two techniques presented novel problems and the third technique a modified problem to the more complex second novel problem. In both species, motivation, early success and better inhibitory control characterized innovators and predicted superior problem-solving performance. Although both species performed equally well in finding a solution to the novel problems, the specialist species was more efficient in finding a novel solution to a familiar problem. Since the ecological specialist also exhibited more inhibitory control in this task than the generalist, we propose that specialists may dispose of more efficient problem-solving behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Henke-von der Malsburg
- Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primatology, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Sociobiology/Anthropology, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Kellnerweg 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus ‘Primate Cognition’, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Claudia Fichtel
- Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primatology, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Sociobiology/Anthropology, Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Kellnerweg 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus ‘Primate Cognition’, Göttingen, Germany
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Medina-García A, Jawor JM, Wright TF. Cognition, personality, and stress in budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus. Behav Ecol 2017; 28:1504-1516. [PMID: 29622930 PMCID: PMC5872908 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arx116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2016] [Revised: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 08/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
To study the fitness effects of individual variation in cognitive traits, it is paramount to understand whether traits such as personality and physiological stress influence cognitive performance. We first tested whether budgerigars showed both consistent personalities and cognitive performance across time and tasks. We tested object and food neophobia, and exploratory behavior. We measured cognitive performance in habituation, ability to solve foraging problems, spatial memory, and seed discrimination tasks. Budgerigars showed consistency in their neophobic tendencies and these tendencies were associated with their exploratory behavior. Birds were also consistent in how they performed in most of the cognitive tasks (temporal consistency), but were not consistent in their performance across tasks (context consistency). Neither corticosterone levels (baseline and stress-induced) showed a significant relationship with either cognitive or personality measures. Neophobic and exploratory tendencies determined the willingness of birds to engage only in the seed discrimination task. Such tendencies also had a significant effect on problem-solving ability. Our results suggest that consistent individual differences in cognitive performance along with consistent differences in personality could determine response to environmental change and therefore have important fitness consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Medina-García
- Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces MSC 3AF, 1200 Horseshoe Drive, NM 88003, USA
| | - Jodie M Jawor
- Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces MSC 3AF, 1200 Horseshoe Drive, NM 88003, USA
| | - Timothy F Wright
- Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces MSC 3AF, 1200 Horseshoe Drive, NM 88003, USA
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O’Shea W, Serrano-Davies E, Quinn JL. Do personality and innovativeness influence competitive ability? An experimental test in the great tit. Behav Ecol 2017. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arx104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Sulikowski D. From sensory to social: the information that impacts animal foraging decisions. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Guillette LM, Naguib M, Griffin AS. Individual differences in cognition and personality. Behav Processes 2017; 134:1-3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2016.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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