Adolescence in Wild Cebus Capucinus: Personality, Demography and Life History

这个项目的目的是测量野生卷尾猴（Cebus capucinus）的性格特征和早期经历对它们在青少年时期的社会和生殖成功的影响。 虽然之前对其他物种的研究已经记录了其中的一些影响，但没有研究结合了自由生活的年轻灵长类动物的个性特征，人口统计学环境（例如可用的同性玩伴数量），亲属关系网络和婴儿期的社会发展。 调查人员将在哥斯达黎加洛马斯巴尔布达尔及其附近对50只未成年卷尾猴进行6,500多小时的观察，并辅以30多名现场助理对2001-2006年整个期间26个假设人格维度（如冲动性）的个人评级。从长期监测和粪便样本DNA分析中，已经知道了受试者及其组友之间的遗传关系。 在这个项目中，研究人员将对这些个体进行额外的三年观察，因为雌性会生育第一个后代，而雄性会离开他们的出生群体并试图加入另一个群体。 研究人员将测试16个假设，这些假设将性格和/或早期经历与青少年成功的各种衡量标准联系起来。 例如，他们预计，冲动性较低、外向性较强的雄性更有可能成对或三人移徙，而不是单独移徙，共同移徙的雄性比单独移徙者更有可能在群体中获得较高的统治地位。 他们还预测，与移民前的男性青少年相比，女性青少年的社交网络将更像其母亲的社交网络。 以前的研究结果表明，年轻的卷尾猴使用复杂的食物加工技术，部分是通过观察更有经验的个体来学习的。 有几种假说与这种社会学习有关;例如，研究人员预测，居住在较大社会群体中的个体，花更多时间在其他猴子附近觅食，将在更早的年龄获得觅食能力。 他们还假设，青少年将获得其亲密伙伴所采用的特定食品加工技术。Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project一直是许多年轻灵长类动物学家的重要培训设施，提供通常持续12个月的实习，实习生（通常是刚毕业的大学生）在其中学习更多关于自然历史，行为学数据收集和数据分析，而不是在野外学校。 仅在过去五年中，就有32名实习生在该地点接受了培训。 离开该项目后，这些人在就业市场和获得全额资助进入他们首选的研究生课程方面都表现得非常好。 大约三分之二的实习生是妇女，有几个是代表性不足的族裔群体的成员。 NSF对这一提议的支持将为另外大约18人提供实习机会。 此外，该项目的主要研究人员和实习生在哥斯达黎加开展环境教育方案，主要侧重于研究对象居住的森林附近社区的小学。该项目的主要参与者作为哥斯达黎加野生动物管理局和其他地方保护机构的顾问积极开展工作，并正在制定环境教育推广方案。

The goal of this project is to measure the effects of wild capuchin monkeys' (Cebus capucinus) personality traits and early experiences on their social and reproductive success as adolescents. Although previous research on other species has documented some of these effects, no study has combined measurement of free-living young primates' personality traits, demographic circumstances (e.g. number of available same-sex playmates), kinship networks, and social development from infancy. The investigators will build on more than 6,500 hours of observation on 50 immature capuchins in and near Lomas Barbudal, Costa Rica, supplemented by over 30 field assistants' ratings of individuals on 26 hypothesized personality dimensions (e.g. impulsivity) continuously covering the entire period 2001-2006. Genetic relationships among subjects and their groupmates are already known from long-term monitoring and from analyses of DNA from fecal samples. In this project, the investigators will observe these individuals for three additional years, as females bear their first offspring and males leave their birth group and try to join another group. The researchers will test 16 hypotheses linking personality and/or early experience to various measures of adolescent success. For example, they expect that less impulsive and more extraverted males will be more likely to migrate in pairs or trios rather than alone and that co-migrating males will be more likely than lone migrants to attain high dominance rank in their group. They also predict that, compared to pre-migrant adolescent males, adolescent females' social networks will resemble their mothers' social networks more strongly. Previous findings indicate that young capuchins use complex food-processing techniques that are learned partly by observing more experienced individuals. Several hypotheses pertain to such social learning; for example, the researchers predict that individuals that reside in larger social groups and that spend more time foraging near other monkeys will attain foraging competence at an earlier age. They also hypothesize that adolescents will acquire the specific food-processing techniques employed by their close associates. The Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project has been an important training facility for many young primatologists, offering internships usually lasting 12 months, in which the interns (typically recent university graduates) learn far more about natural history, ethological data collection, and data analysis than would be possible in a field school. In the past five years alone, 32 interns have been trained at the site. After leaving the project, these individuals have fared extremely well both on the job market and in obtaining fully funded admission to their top choice graduate programs. About two thirds of the interns have been women, and several have been members of underrepresented ethnic groups. NSF support of this proposal will provide internships to approximately 18 additional people. In addition, the project PIs and interns carry out environmental education programs within Costa Rica, focusing primarily on the elementary schools of communities adjacent to the forests where the study subjects live. The project PIs are active as consultants to the Costa Rican Wildlife Service and other local conservation agencies and are developing environmental education outreach programs.