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Robira B, Benhamou S, Obeki Bayanga E, Breuer T, Masi S. Changes in movement patterns in relation to sun conditions and spatial scales in wild western gorillas. Anim Cogn 2024; 27:37. [PMID: 38684551 PMCID: PMC11058680 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01871-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 03/24/2024] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
For most primates living in tropical forests, food resources occur in patchworks of different habitats that vary seasonally in quality and quantity. Efficient navigation (i.e., spatial memory-based orientation) towards profitable food patches should enhance their foraging success. The mechanisms underpinning primate navigating ability remain nonetheless mostly unknown. Using GPS long-term tracking (596 days) of one group of wild western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), we investigated their ability to navigate at long distances, and tested for how the sun was used to navigate at any scale by improving landmark visibility and/or by acting as a compass. Long episodic movements ending at a distant swamp, a unique place in the home range where gorillas could find mineral-rich aquatic plants, were straighter and faster than their everyday foraging movements relying on spatial memory. This suggests intentional targeting of the swamp based on long-distance navigation skills, which can thus be efficient over a couple of kilometres. Interestingly, for both long-distance movements towards the swamp and everyday foraging movements, gorillas moved straighter under sunlight conditions even under a dense vegetation cover. By contrast, movement straightness was not markedly different when the sun elevation was low (the sun azimuth then being potentially usable as a compass) or high (so providing no directional information) and the sky was clear or overcast. This suggests that gorillas navigate their home range by relying on visual place recognition but do not use the sun azimuth as a compass. Like humans, who rely heavily on vision to navigate, gorillas should benefit from better lighting to help them identify landmarks as they move through shady forests. This study uncovers a neglected aspect of primate navigation. Spatial memory and vision might have played an important role in the evolutionary success of diurnal primate lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Robira
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Université de Montpellier & CNRS, Montpellier, France.
- Eco-Anthropologie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Musée de L'Homme, Paris, France.
| | - S Benhamou
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Université de Montpellier & CNRS, Montpellier, France
- Associated to Cogitamus Lab,
| | - E Obeki Bayanga
- Congo Program, Mondika Research Center, Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, Wildlife Conservation Society, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
| | - T Breuer
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, New-York, USA
- World Wide Fund for Nature, Berlin, Germany
| | - S Masi
- Eco-Anthropologie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Musée de L'Homme, Paris, France
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Robira B, Benhamou S, Masi S, Llaurens V, Riotte-Lambert L. Foraging efficiency in temporally predictable environments: is a long-term temporal memory really advantageous? ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:210809. [PMID: 34567589 PMCID: PMC8456140 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive abilities enabling animals that feed on ephemeral but yearly renewable resources to infer when resources are available may have been favoured by natural selection, but the magnitude of the benefits brought by these abilities remains poorly known. Using computer simulations, we compared the efficiencies of three main types of foragers with different abilities to process temporal information, in spatially and/or temporally homogeneous or heterogeneous environments. One was endowed with a sampling memory, which stores recent experience about the availability of the different food types. The other two were endowed with a chronological or associative memory, which stores long-term temporal information about absolute times of these availabilities or delays between them, respectively. To determine the range of possible efficiencies, we also simulated a forager without temporal cognition but which simply targeted the closest and possibly empty food sources, and a perfectly prescient forager, able to know at any time which food source was effectively providing food. The sampling, associative and chronological foragers were far more efficient than the forager without temporal cognition in temporally predictable environments, and interestingly, their efficiencies increased with the level of temporal heterogeneity. The use of a long-term temporal memory results in a foraging efficiency up to 1.16 times better (chronological memory) or 1.14 times worse (associative memory) than the use of a simple sampling memory. Our results thus show that, for everyday foraging, a long-term temporal memory did not provide a clear benefit over a simple short-term memory that keeps track of the current resource availability. Long-term temporal memories may therefore have emerged in contexts where short-term temporal cognition is useless, i.e. when the anticipation of future environmental changes is strongly needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Robira
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Université de Montpellier and CNRS, Montpellier, France
| | - Simon Benhamou
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Université de Montpellier and CNRS, Montpellier, France
| | - Shelly Masi
- Eco-anthropologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Violaine Llaurens
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, CNRS-École Pratique des Hautes Études, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris, France
| | - Louise Riotte-Lambert
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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Cao Z, Wang Y, Zhang L. Real-time Acute Stress Facilitates Allocentric Spatial Processing in a Virtual Fire Disaster. Sci Rep 2017; 7:14616. [PMID: 29097754 PMCID: PMC5668298 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14910-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Prior studies have shown that spatial cognition is influenced by stress prior to task. The current study investigated the effects of real-time acute stress on allocentric and egocentric spatial processing. A virtual reality-based spatial reference rule learning (SRRL) task was designed in which participants were instructed to make a location selection by walking to one of three poles situated around a tower. A selection was reinforced by either an egocentric spatial reference rule (leftmost or rightmost pole relative to participant) or an allocentric spatial reference rule (nearest or farthest pole relative to the tower). In Experiment 1, 32 participants (16 males, 16 females; aged from 18 to 27) performed a SRRL task in a normal virtual reality environment (VRE). The hit rates and rule acquisition revealed no difference between allocentric and egocentric spatial reference rule learning. In Experiment 2, 64 participants (32 males, 34 females; aged from 19 to 30) performed the SRRL task in both a low-stress VRE (a mini virtual arena) and a high-stress VRE (mini virtual arena with a fire disaster). Allocentric references facilitated learning in the high-stressful VRE. The results suggested that acute stress facilitate allocentric spatial processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhengcao Cao
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100037, China
| | - Yamin Wang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100037, China.
| | - Liang Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
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Schlägel UE, Merrill EH, Lewis MA. Territory surveillance and prey management: Wolves keep track of space and time. Ecol Evol 2017; 7:8388-8405. [PMID: 29075457 PMCID: PMC5648667 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2017] [Revised: 04/22/2017] [Accepted: 04/24/2017] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying behavioral mechanisms that underlie observed movement patterns is difficult when animals employ sophisticated cognitive‐based strategies. Such strategies may arise when timing of return visits is important, for instance to allow for resource renewal or territorial patrolling. We fitted spatially explicit random‐walk models to GPS movement data of six wolves (Canis lupus; Linnaeus, 1758) from Alberta, Canada to investigate the importance of the following: (1) territorial surveillance likely related to renewal of scent marks along territorial edges, to reduce intraspecific risk among packs, and (2) delay in return to recently hunted areas, which may be related to anti‐predator responses of prey under varying prey densities. The movement models incorporated the spatiotemporal variable “time since last visit,” which acts as a wolf's memory index of its travel history and is integrated into the movement decision along with its position in relation to territory boundaries and information on local prey densities. We used a model selection framework to test hypotheses about the combined importance of these variables in wolf movement strategies. Time‐dependent movement for territory surveillance was supported by all wolf movement tracks. Wolves generally avoided territory edges, but this avoidance was reduced as time since last visit increased. Time‐dependent prey management was weak except in one wolf. This wolf selected locations with longer time since last visit and lower prey density, which led to a longer delay in revisiting high prey density sites. Our study shows that we can use spatially explicit random walks to identify behavioral strategies that merge environmental information and explicit spatiotemporal information on past movements (i.e., “when” and “where”) to make movement decisions. The approach allows us to better understand cognition‐based movement in relation to dynamic environments and resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrike E Schlägel
- Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton AB Canada.,Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam Potsdam Germany
| | - Evelyn H Merrill
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton AB Canada
| | - Mark A Lewis
- Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton AB Canada.,Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton AB Canada
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Abstract
An individual’s choices are shaped by its experience, a fundamental property of behavior important to understanding complex processes. Learning and memory are observed across many taxa and can drive behaviors, including foraging behavior. To explore the conditions under which memory provides an advantage, we present a continuous-space, continuous-time model of animal movement that incorporates learning and memory. Using simulation models, we evaluate the benefit memory provides across several types of landscapes with variable-quality resources and compare the memory model within a nested hierarchy of simpler models (behavioral switching and random walk). We find that memory almost always leads to improved foraging success, but that this effect is most marked in landscapes containing sparse, contiguous patches of high-value resources that regenerate relatively fast and are located in an otherwise devoid landscape. In these cases, there is a large payoff for finding a resource patch, due to size, value, or locational difficulty. While memory-informed search is difficult to differentiate from other factors using solely movement data, our results suggest that disproportionate spatial use of higher value areas, higher consumption rates, and consumption variability all point to memory influencing the movement direction of animals in certain ecosystems.
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Howard AM, Fragaszy DM. Multi-step routes of capuchin monkeys in a laser pointer traveling salesman task. Am J Primatol 2014; 76:828-41. [PMID: 24700520 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2013] [Revised: 02/09/2014] [Accepted: 02/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Prior studies have claimed that nonhuman primates plan their routes multiple steps in advance. However, a recent reexamination of multi-step route planning in nonhuman primates indicated that there is no evidence for planning more than one step ahead. We tested multi-step route planning in capuchin monkeys using a pointing device to "travel" to distal targets while stationary. This device enabled us to determine whether capuchins distinguish the spatial relationship between goals and themselves and spatial relationships between goals and the laser dot, allocentrically. In Experiment 1, two subjects were presented with identical food items in Near-Far (one item nearer to subject) and Equidistant (both items equidistant from subject) conditions with a laser dot visible between the items. Subjects moved the laser dot to the items using a joystick. In the Near-Far condition, one subject demonstrated a bias for items closest to self but the other subject chose efficiently. In the second experiment, subjects retrieved three food items in similar Near-Far and Equidistant arrangements. Both subjects preferred food items nearest the laser dot and showed no evidence of multi-step route planning. We conclude that these capuchins do not make choices on the basis of multi-step look ahead strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison M Howard
- Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
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Wren CD, Xue JZ, Costopoulos A, Burke A. The role of spatial foresight in models of hominin dispersal. J Hum Evol 2014; 69:70-8. [PMID: 24613470 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2013] [Revised: 02/07/2014] [Accepted: 02/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Increasingly sophisticated hominin cognition is assumed to play an important role in major dispersal events but it is unclear what that role is. We present an agent-based model showing that there is a close relationship between level of foresight, environmental heterogeneity, and population dispersibility. We explore the dynamics between these three factors and discuss how they may affect the capacity of a hominin population to disperse. Generally, we find that high levels of environmental heterogeneity select for increased foresight and that high levels of foresight tend to reduce dispersibility. This suggests that cognitively complex hominins in heterogeneous environments have low dispersibility relative to cognitively less complex organisms in more homogeneous environments. The model predicts that the environments leading up to major episodes of dispersal, such as the initial hominin dispersal into Eurasia, were likely relatively low in spatial heterogeneity and that the dispersing hominins had relatively low foresight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin D Wren
- Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke St. West., Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, Canada.
| | - Julian Z Xue
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Andre Costopoulos
- Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke St. West., Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, Canada
| | - Ariane Burke
- Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
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Schreier AL, Grove M. Recurrent patterning in the daily foraging routes of hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas): Spatial memory in large-scale versus small-scale space. Am J Primatol 2013; 76:421-35. [DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2013] [Revised: 07/10/2013] [Accepted: 07/29/2013] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Matt Grove
- Evolutionary Anthropology Group, ACE; University of Liverpool; Liverpool Merseyside, United Kingdom
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