Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Spatial Mapping and Foraging Strategies of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus): Insights from Natural and Experimental Field Studies

本研究的目的是研究一系列关于人类和非人类灵长类动物认知、空间记忆以及猴子在森林景观中形成重要进食、休息和避难地点的位置和分布的心理地图的能力的行为和进化问题。灵长类动物的栖息地在空间尺度上变化很大，从不到1公顷到几千公顷不等，在数周和数月的时间里，它们会访问和重新访问数百个觅食点。在人类进化的过程中，与远距离狩猎、寻找工具原料来源以及寻找足够喂养群体成员的觅食地点相关的选择压力，可能在增强认知能力方面发挥了关键作用。然而，关于非人类灵长类动物如何在内部存储空间信息以及个体采取直接和有计划的路线到顺序进食地点的程度，人们知之甚少。灵长类动物有两种主要的空间记忆形式。有人认为，灵长类动物可能在内部以几何地图的形式表现空间记忆，其中景观中的点被存储为真实坐标。这样的地图被描述为“从上面看”，其中个人计算目标或目标之间的精确角度和距离。使用几何地图的个体应该能够计算出在遥远的觅食地点之间新的、直接的捷径。或者，灵长类动物可能在内部将空间信息表示为基于路线的地图，其中个体使用和重用一组共同路径和选择数量的地标，无论是单独还是组合，以达到大量的目标或目标。在这项研究中，pi通过研究哥斯达黎加野生白面卷尾猴（Cebus capucinus）的空间记忆来研究灵长类动物的认知生态学问题。卷尾猴在新大陆灵长类动物中是不寻常的，据报道，它们表现出一系列让人想起早期人类祖先的行为，包括协调狩猎哺乳动物和使用工具（包括使用石器）。卷尾猴的另一个特点是大脑更大，操作能力更强。因此，它们代表了一种相关的灵长类动物模型，用于解决有关生态、解决问题、大脑体积增加和认知复杂性之间关系的重要进化问题。pi计划使用两种研究技术来检验卷尾猴的认知能力。首先，他们将使用行为生态学方法，研究卷尾猴在森林中自然的决策、旅行和运动模式。其次，他们将采用实地实验的方法，在森林的特定位置放置喂食点，以确定卷尾猴学习这些新喂食点的空间位置的速度，到达这些喂食点的树木路径，以及这些路径与基于坐标的心理地图或基于路线的心理地图最一致的程度。这项研究的科学价值在于，它将有助于理解灵长类动物在寻找时间、空间和数量变化的资源时自然面临的挑战，从而确定在人类复杂决策和增强认知和空间能力的进化中可能发挥关键作用的一组选择压力。这项研究的更广泛的影响是，所获得的知识将有助于扩大野生灵长类动物社会学习和认知的数据库。大多数灵长类动物的学习研究都是在实验室环境中对单个或少数孤立的个体进行的。然而，几乎所有的野生灵长类动物都是社会性的觅食者，因此可以获得社会信息（跟随谁，避开谁，加入谁）和生态信息（空间、时间和数量信息）。不同的物种是如何利用这些信息的，人们知之甚少。该研究将为今后野生灵长类动物决策与学习的研究提供一个重要的模型。

The goal of this research is to examine a set of behavioral and evolutionary questions concerning human and nonhuman primate cognition, spatial memory, and the ability of monkeys to form mental maps of the location and distribution of important feeding, resting, and refuge sites across a forested landscape. Primates exploit home ranges that vary on spatial scales of from less than 1 ha to several thousand hectares, and over the course of weeks and months visit and revisit hundreds of feeding sites. In the case of human evolution, selective pressures associated with the ability to navigate large distances to hunt, locate sources of raw materials for tools, and find feeding sites sufficient to feed group members is likely to have played a critical role in enhanced cognitive abilities. However, little is known concerning how nonhuman primates internally store spatial information and the degree to which individuals take direct and planned routes to sequential feeding sites. Two primary forms of spatial memory have been hypothesized for primates. It has been suggested that primates might internally represent spatial memory in the form of a geometric map in which points in the landscape are stored as true coordinates. Such a map has been described as a "view from above" in which individuals calculate precise angles and distances between targets or goals. Individuals using a geometric map should be able to calculate novel, direct short-cut routes between distant feeding sites. Alternatively, primates may internally represent spatial information as a route-based map in which individuals use and reuse a set of common pathways and a select number of landmarks, either singly or in combination, to reach a large number of targets or goals. In this study th PIs examine questions of primate cognitive ecology by studying spatial memory in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica. Capuchins are unusual among New World primates in that they are reported to exhibit a set of behaviors reminiscent of early human ancestors including the coordinated hunting of mammals and tool use (including stone tool use). Capuchins also are characterized by an enlarged brain and enhanced manipulative abilities. Therefore, they represent a relevant primate model for addressing important evolutionary questions concerning relationships between ecology, problem-solving, increased brain size, and cognitive complexity. The PIs plan to examine capuchin cognition using two research techniques. First, they will use a behavioral-ecological approach and study decision-making, travel, and movement patterns of capuchins naturally in the forest. Secondly, they will use an experimental field approach by placing feeding sites in particular locations in the forest to determine how quickly the capuchins learn the spatial location of these new feeding sites, arboreal pathways taken to reach these feeding sites, and the degree to which these routes are most consistent with a coordinate- based mental map or a route-based mental map. The scientific merit of this study is that it will add to an understanding of the challenges primates naturally face in locating resources that vary in time, space, and quantity in order to identify the set of selective pressures that may have played a critical role in the evolution of complex decision-making and enhanced cognitive and spatial abilities in humans. The broader impact of this research is that the knowledge gained will contribute to an expanding data base on social learning and cognition in wild primates. The majority of studies of learning in primates is conducted on single or small numbers of isolated individuals in a laboratory setting. However, virtually all wild primates are social foragers, and therefore have access to both social (who to follow, who to avoid, who to join) and ecological information (spatial, temporal, quantity information). How difference species use this information is poorly understood. This study will provide an important model for future studies on decision-making and learning in wild primates.