Responses to novelty in wild insular birds: comparing breeding populations in ecologically contrasting habitats.

Islands have always provided ideal natural laboratories for assessing ecological parameters influencing behaviour. One hypothesis that lends itself well to testing in island habitats suggests that animals frequenting highly variable environments should be motivated to approach and interact with (i.e. explore) novelty. Intra-species comparisons of populations living in ecologically different island habitats may, thus, help reveal the factors that modulate animals' responses to novelty. In this study, we presented novel objects to two geographically isolated breeding populations of the black-faced sheathbill (Chionis minor), a sedentary land-based bird that frequents remote sub-Antarctic islands. In the first population (Chionis minor ssp. crozettensis), the "Crozet group" (Baie du Marin, Ile de la Possession, Crozet Islands), breeding pairs inhabit a variable habitat close to penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) colonies. In the second population (Chionis minor ssp. minor), the "Kerguelen group" (île Verte, Morbihan gulf, Kerguelen Islands) breeding pairs live in penguin-free territories. In this latter population, the environment is less variable due to the presence of a broad intertidal zone which ensures year-round food availability. At both Kerguelen and Crozet, at least one breeding partner in all pairs approached at least one of the novel objects, and we found no significant differences in the latency of approach between the two populations. However, sheathbills at Crozet touched objects significantly more than birds at Kerguelen, and were also faster to touch them. We discuss how environmental variability, along with other potential influencing factors, may favour exploration of novelty in this wild insular bird.

The first Miocene fossils from coastal woodlands in the southern East African Rift.

The Miocene was a key time in the evolution of African ecosystems witnessing the origin of the African apes and the isolation of eastern coastal forests through an expanding arid corridor. Until recently, however, Miocene sites from the southeastern regions of the continent were unknown. Here, we report the first Miocene fossil teeth from the shoulders of the Urema Rift in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. We provide the first 1) radiometric ages of the Mazamba Formation, 2) reconstructions of paleovegetation in the region based on pedogenic carbonates and fossil wood, and 3) descriptions of fossil teeth. Gorongosa is unique in the East African Rift in combining marine invertebrates, marine vertebrates, reptiles, terrestrial mammals, and fossil woods in coastal paleoenvironments. The Gorongosa fossil sites offer the first evidence of woodlands and forests on the coastal margins of southeastern Africa during the Miocene, and an exceptional assemblage of fossils including new species.

Responses of wild skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi) to human cues in cooperative and competitive social contexts.

Many animals respond to and use social cues emitted by other species (e.g., head direction). In the context of human-animal communication, these capacities have been attributed to regular and longstanding exposure to humans. We presented wild brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi) with two versions of an object-choice paradigm. In the cooperative version (Experiment 1), one human experimenter provided a simple and salient cue indicating which of two containers covered a food reward. The cues administered consisted of touching, looking at, pointing at, or pointing and looking at the container hiding food. In Experiment 1, skuas could thus cooperate with an experimenter by using the cues provided to locate the rewarded container. In the competitive version (Experiment 2), two human experimenters presented a platform with a visible food reward. In six experimental conditions, we varied experimenters' body orientation, head orientation, eye-gaze direction, face occlusion, and mouth occlusion, as well as the platform's location, ensuring that in each case only one experimenter had visual access to the rewarded platform. Here, birds could compete with the experimenters by robbing the human who does not see the food. Skuas failed to use human-given cues spontaneously in Experiment 1, and took the reward regardless of whether the experimenters could see in Experiment 2. Our results contrast with those obtained on other wild birds with pre-experience with humans. Hopefully, our findings will stimulate further research in order to illuminate the potential role of such experience in the capacity to respond to and use human-given cues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Dora Biro.

An interview with animal cognition specialist Dora Biro.

Beyond collective intelligence: Collective adaptation.

We develop a conceptual framework for studying collective adaptation in complex socio-cognitive systems, driven by dynamic interactions of social integration strategies, social environments and problem structures. Going beyond searching for 'intelligent' collectives, we integrate research from different disciplines and outline modelling approaches that can be used to begin answering questions such as why collectives sometimes fail to reach seemingly obvious solutions, how they change their strategies and network structures in response to different problems and how we can anticipate and perhaps change future harmful societal trajectories. We discuss the importance of considering path dependence, lack of optimization and collective myopia to understand the sometimes counterintuitive outcomes of collective adaptation. We call for a transdisciplinary, quantitative and societally useful social science that can help us to understand our rapidly changing and ever more complex societies, avoid collective disasters and reach the full potential of our ability to organize in adaptive collectives.

Mechanisms of collective learning: how can animal groups improve collective performance when repeating a task?

Learning is ubiquitous in animals: individuals can use their experience to fine-tune behaviour and thus to better adapt to the environment during their lifetime. Observations have accumulated that, at the collective level, groups can also use their experience to improve collective performance. Yet, despite apparent simplicity, the links between individual learning capacities and a collective's performance can be extremely complex. Here we propose a centralized and broadly applicable framework to begin classifying this complexity. Focusing principally on groups with stable composition, we first identify three distinct ways through which groups can improve their collective performance when repeating a task: each member learning to better solve the task on its own, members learning about each other to better respond to one another and members learning to improve their complementarity. We show through selected empirical examples, simulations and theoretical treatments that these three categories identify distinct mechanisms with distinct consequences and predictions. These mechanisms extend well beyond current social learning and collective decision-making theories in explaining collective learning. Finally, our approach, definitions and categories help generate new empirical and theoretical research avenues, including charting the expected distribution of collective learning capacities across taxa and its links to social stability and evolution. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.

Wild skuas can follow human-given behavioural cues when objects resemble natural food.

The capacity to follow human cues provides animals with information about the environment and can hence offer obvious adaptive benefits. Most studies carried out so far, however, have been on captive animals with previous experience with humans. Further comparative investigation is needed to properly assess the factors driving the emergence of this capacity under natural conditions, especially in species that do not have longstanding interactions with humans. Wild brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp. lonnbergi) are non-neophobic seabirds that live in human-free habitats. In test 1, we assessed this species' capacity to use human behavioural cues (i.e., pecking at the same object previously picked up and lifted by a human experimenter) when the items presented were food objects: anthropogenic objects (wrapped muffins) and natural-food-resembling objects (plaster eggs). In test 2, we examined the response of another skua population towards non-food objects (sponges). Although all skuas in test 1 pecked at the objects, they pecked significantly more at the same previously handled items when they resembled natural food (plaster eggs). Most skuas in test 2, however, did not approach or peck at the non-food objects presented. Our results lead us to suggest that the use of human behavioural cues may be influenced by skuas' foraging ecology, which paves the way to further field studies assessing whether this capacity is directed specifically towards food objects and/or develops after previous interaction with humans.

Empirical test of the many-wrongs hypothesis reveals weighted averaging of individual routes in pigeon flocks.

The 'many-wrongs hypothesis' predicts that groups improve their decision-making performance by aggregating members' diverse opinions. Although this has been considered one of the major benefits of collective movement and migration, whether and how multiple inputs are in fact aggregated for superior directional accuracy has not been empirically verified in non-human animals. Here we showed that larger homing pigeon flocks had significantly more efficient (i.e. shorter) homing routes than smaller flocks, consistent with previous findings and with the predictions of the many-wrongs hypothesis. However, detailed analysis showed that flock routes were not simply averages of individual routes, but instead that pigeons that more faithfully recapitulated their routes during individual flights had a proportionally greater influence on their flocks' routes. We discuss the implications of our results for possible mechanisms of collective learning as well as for the definition of leadership in animals solving navigational tasks collectively.

Pigeon leadership hierarchies are not dependent on environmental contexts or individual phenotypes.

Remaining cohesive on the move can be beneficial for animal groups. As such, animal groups have evolved coordination mechanisms such as leadership to resolve navigational conflicts of interest. Consistent "leaders" may have an intrinsic advantage over "followers" which compromise on their preferred route to retain cohesion, which highlights the question of the inter-individual variation (phenotype) that can predict leadership. Studies in both birds and fish have revealed that intrinsically faster individuals can lead movements, and leading movements propagate from the front edge of the flock/shoal. However, these experiments are generally conducted in relatively "familiar" environments, where the degree of compromise between the "leaders" and "followers" is low. We suggested that inter-individual differences in route efficiency, while not explanatory of leadership from familiar locations, may emerge as predictors of leadership from unfamiliar locations. We tested this prediction - and the potential impact of multiple other behavioral, morphological and "in-flight" phenotypes on leadership - using two groups of homing pigeons (Columba livia) (N = 16), a classic model species of leadership. We recorded N = 966 unique GPS trajectories from birds in (i) solo and familiar, and (ii) solo and unfamiliar contexts to measure solo speed and solo route efficiency; and (iii) group and familiar, and (iv) group and unfamiliar contexts to assess group leadership. Pigeon leadership hierarchies were similar across environmental context (i.e., familiarity). However, we found that no covariates could consistently predict leadership score in either context.

Genomic variation in baboons from central Mozambique unveils complex evolutionary relationships with other Papio species.

BACKGROUND: Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique hosts a large population of baboons, numbering over 200 troops. Gorongosa baboons have been tentatively identified as part of Papio ursinus on the basis of previous limited morphological analysis and a handful of mitochondrial DNA sequences. However, a recent morphological and morphometric analysis of Gorongosa baboons pinpointed the occurrence of several traits intermediate between P. ursinus and P. cynocephalus, leaving open the possibility of past and/or ongoing gene flow in the baboon population of Gorongosa National Park. In order to investigate the evolutionary history of baboons in Gorongosa, we generated high and low coverage whole genome sequence data of Gorongosa baboons and compared it to available Papio genomes. RESULTS: We confirmed that P. ursinus is the species closest to Gorongosa baboons. However, the Gorongosa baboon genomes share more derived alleles with P. cynocephalus than P. ursinus does, but no recent gene flow between P. ursinus and P. cynocephalus was detected when available Papio genomes were analyzed. Our results, based on the analysis of autosomal, mitochondrial and Y chromosome data, suggest complex, possibly male-biased, gene flow between Gorongosa baboons and P. cynocephalus, hinting to direct or indirect contributions from baboons belonging to the "northern" Papio clade, and signal the presence of population structure within P. ursinus. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of genome data generated from baboon samples collected in central Mozambique highlighted a complex set of evolutionary relationships with other baboons. Our results provided new insights in the population dynamics that have shaped baboon diversity.

Wild skuas can use acoustic cues to locate hidden food.

Among animals, the visual acuity of several predatory bird species is probably the most outstanding. This, and the ease with which visually based tasks are administered, has led researchers to predominantly use the visual modality when studying avian cognition. Some wild skua populations routinely use acoustic cues emitted by their prey during foraging. In this study, we thus assessed whether this species was able to locate hidden food using acoustic cues alone (training phase). During the subsequent test phase, we investigated the capacity of successful individuals to choose the correct baited container in four conditions: (i) baited (shaking the baited container), (ii) full information (shaking both containers), (iii) exclusion (shaking the empty container), and (iv) control (shaking neither container). Four out of ten subjects succeeded in locating the baited container in the training phase. During the test phase, most subjects chose the baited container significantly more than the empty container in the baited and full information condition, while their performance was at chance level in the control condition. When no sound emanated from the empty container in the exclusion condition, one out of four skuas chose the baited container with more accuracy than predicted by chance. As this bird chose correctly on the first trial and during the first five trials, its performance is unlikely due to learning processes (learning to exclude the empty container). Although further tests are necessary to draw firm conclusions, our results open the way for assessing further this species' reasoning abilities in the wild.

Inter-community behavioural variation confirmed through indirect methods in four neighbouring chimpanzee communities in Cantanhez NP, Guinea-Bissau.

Culture, while long viewed as exclusively human, has now been demonstrated across diverse taxa and contexts. However, most animal culture data are constrained to well-studied, habituated groups. This is the case for chimpanzees, arguably the most 'cultural' non-human species. While much progress has been made charting wild chimpanzees' cultural repertoire, large gaps remain in our knowledge of the majority of the continent's chimpanzees. Furthermore, few studies have compared neighbouring communities, despite such comparisons providing the strongest evidence for culture, and few have studied communities living in anthropogenic habitats although their culture is in imminent danger of disappearing. Here we combine direct, indirect and remote methods, including camera traps, to study, over 2 years, four unhabituated neighbouring chimpanzee communities inhabiting human-impacted habitats in Cantanhez NP, Guinea-Bissau. From traces collected during 1089 km of reconnaissance walks and 4197 videos from 56 camera trap locations, we identified 18 putative cultural traits. These included some noteworthy novel behaviours for these communities, and behaviours possibly new to the species. We created preliminary behavioural profiles for each community, and found inter-community differences spanning tool use, communication, and social behaviour, demonstrating the importance of comparing neighbouring communities and of studying previously neglected communities including those inhabiting anthropogenic landscapes.

Exclusion by donkey's ears: Donkeys (Equus asinus) use acoustic information to find hidden food in a two-way object-choice task.

Once believed uniquely human, the capacity to reason is now investigated in a wide range of species. One component of this ability, inference by exclusion, has been traditionally explored through the cups task, where 2 containers are presented but only 1 covers a food reward (if Cup A is empty, then choose Cup B). Often based on low-level cognitive mechanisms (learning), performance on this task can also reflect reasoning processes in some individuals. Limited taxonomic investigation, however, has hindered our understanding of the factors that contribute to the evolution of reasoning in animals. Using the cups task, we first investigated the ability of 14 semiwild donkeys to locate a food reward by using visual or acoustic cues alone (pretest phase). Although all subjects failed the task when provided with visual cues, 7 donkeys succeeded in the acoustic modality. We thus tested the capacity of donkeys to make choices by exclusion in the acoustic modality (test phase). Three conditions were presented, where subjects received information about either both containers (full information condition), solely the empty container (exclusion condition), or no information (control condition). Most subjects chose the correct container in the full information condition, whereas they chose randomly in the control condition. Except for 1 individual, donkeys improved their performance across trials in the exclusion condition. Our study contributes to the very small body of literature on exclusion based on acoustic cues in animals and paves the way to further experiments on the cognitive processes underlying exclusion performance in donkeys. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons.

Group-living animals that rely on stable foraging or migratory routes can develop behavioural traditions to pass route information down to inexperienced individuals. Striking a balance between exploitation of social information and exploration for better alternatives is essential to prevent the spread of maladaptive traditions. We investigated this balance during cumulative route development in the homing pigeon Columba livia. We quantified information transfer within pairs of birds in a transmission-chain experiment and determined how birds with different levels of experience contributed to the exploration-exploitation trade-off. Newly introduced naïve individuals were initially more likely to initiate exploration than experienced birds, but the pair soon settled into a pattern of alternating leadership with both birds contributing equally. Experimental pairs showed an oscillating pattern of exploration over generations that might facilitate the discovery of more efficient routes. Our results introduce a new perspective on the roles of leadership and information pooling in the context of collective learning.

Automated audiovisual behavior recognition in wild primates.

Large video datasets of wild animal behavior are crucial to produce longitudinal research and accelerate conservation efforts; however, large-scale behavior analyses continue to be severely constrained by time and resources. We present a deep convolutional neural network approach and fully automated pipeline to detect and track two audiovisually distinctive actions in wild chimpanzees: buttress drumming and nut cracking. Using camera trap and direct video recordings, we train action recognition models using audio and visual signatures of both behaviors, attaining high average precision (buttress drumming: 0.87 and nut cracking: 0.85), and demonstrate the potential for behavioral analysis using the automatically parsed video. Our approach produces the first automated audiovisual action recognition of wild primate behavior, setting a milestone for exploiting large datasets in ethology and conservation.

Pigeons retain partial memories of homing paths years after learning them individually, collectively or culturally.

Memory of past experience is central to many animal decisions, but how long specific memories can influence behaviour is poorly understood. Few studies have reported memories retrieved after several years in non-human animals, especially for spatial tasks, and whether the social context during learning could affect long-term memory retention. We investigated homing pigeons' spatial memory by GPS-recording their homing paths from a site 9 km from their loft. We compared solo flights of naive pigeons with those of pigeons that had last homed from this site 3-4 years earlier, having learnt a homing route either alone (individual learning), together with a naive partner (collective learning) or within cultural transmission chains (cultural learning). We used as a control a second release site unfamiliar to all pigeons. Pigeons from all learning treatments outperformed naive birds at the familiar (but not the unfamiliar) site, but the idiosyncratic routes they formerly used several years before were now partially forgotten. Our results show that non-human animals can use their memory to solve a spatial task years after they last performed it, irrespective of the social context during learning. They also suggest that without reinforcement, landmarks and culturally acquired 'route traditions' are gradually forgotten.

Using natural travel paths to infer and compare primate cognition in the wild.

Within comparative psychology, the evolution of animal cognition is typically studied either by comparing indirect measures of cognitive abilities (e.g., relative brain size) across many species or by conducting batteries of decision-making experiments among (typically) a few captive species. Here, we propose a third, complementary approach: inferring and comparing cognitive abilities through observational field records of natural information gradients and the associated variation in decision-making outcomes, using the ranging behavior of wild animals. To demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal, we present the results of a global survey assessing the availability of long-term ranging data sets from wild primates and the willingness of primatologists to share such data. We explore three ways in which such ranging data, with or without the associated behavioral and ecological data often collected by primatologists, might be used to infer and compare spatial cognition. Finally, we suggest how ecological complexity may be best incorporated into comparative analyses.