Doctoral Disseration Improvement: Long Calls Among Savanna Chimpanzees at Ugalla, Western Tanzania

变化无常的社会制度对个人提出了独特的认知需求，因为需要协调团聚和谈判远距离和断断续续的相遇。各种核聚变物种会发出响亮的叫声，这一行为可能对保持分散在一起的社区成员之间的联系至关重要。尽管对影响发声行为的变量进行了研究，但以往的研究一直无法将跨党派通话置于社会生态环境中，特别是在呼叫者相距很远的情况下。这项研究将解决黑猩猩大声叫声(喘鸣)的功能，并探索关于黑猩猩声音行为及其与环境的关系的假说，特别是当使用稀树草原黑猩猩来模拟早期原始人对干旱栖息地的行为适应时。具体目标包括检查黑猩猩是否(1)使用响亮的叫声来协调相距甚远的各方之间的团聚或行动(使社区中的大部分人能够长时间保持联系)，(2)表现出特定的睡眠地点叫声行为，以及(3)调整群体模式以适应稀缺的资源和/或捕食者密度。为了实现这些目标，开发了一种声学定位系统，该系统将监测和记录坦桑尼亚西部乌加拉整个黑猩猩群落内(可能)的叫声行为和呼叫者位置，提供关于裂变-融合模式的数据。在整个研究区域部署的麦克风装置将把声音实时传输到中央计算机，在那里数据将被分析、存储并用于定位黑猩猩团体以收集行为数据。空间和回归分析将评估黑猩猩筑巢地点与声音环境之间的关系，而流动光谱分析软件将用于分析不同环境中的喘鸣。对于黑猩猩来说，相对政党规模和盟友的招募是群体间(例如致命袭击)和群体内关系的关键因素，发声行为是个体监控彼此位置和行为的重要手段，特别是在没有视觉接触的情况下。稀树大草原黑猩猩的栖息地范围极大(270平方公里，而森林中为15平方公里)，这可能会影响各方的性质、它们如何协调行动，并可能影响社区社会结构本身。揭示稀树草原黑猩猩如何在这些条件下维持它们的社会关系，对于在类似栖息地进化的上新世人种和裂变融合系统的适应性都有意义。更广泛地说，这项研究将开发和展示一种新技术，可以用于任何大声叫喊的动物的行为、生态和保护研究。通过在适当领域和分析方法方面的培训，坦桑尼亚的研究人员和野生动物管理人员可以将这种新的、有用的技术应用于新的额外研究问题。

Fluid social systems place unique cognitive demands on individuals given the necessity to coordinate reunions and negotiate relationships over large distances and with intermittent encounters. A variety of fission-fusion species produce loud calls, a behavior likely critical in maintaining contact between widely spaced community members. Despite investigation into the variables that influence vocal behavior, previous research has been unable to situate interparty calling in a socio-ecological context, especially when callers are separated by large distances. This study will address the function of chimpanzee loud calls (pant hoots), as well as explore hypotheses concerning chimpanzee acoustic behavior and its relationship to the environment, important especially when using savanna chimpanzees to model early hominin behavioral adaptations to arid habitats. Specific objectives include examination of whether chimpanzees (1) use loud calls to coordinate reunions or movements between widely separated parties (enabling a large percentage of the community to maintain contact for prolonged periods of time), (2) exhibit specific sleeping-site calling behavior, and (3) adjust grouping patterns to scarce resources and/or predator density. To meet these objectives, an acoustic localization system has been developed that will monitor and record calling behavior and caller locations within (potentially) an entire chimpanzee community in Ugalla, Western Tanzania, providing data on fission-fusion patterns. Microphone units deployed across the study area will transmit, in real time, sounds to a central computer where data will be analyzed, stored, and used to locate chimpanzee parties for behavioural data collection. Spatial and regression analyses will assess the relationship between chimpanzee nesting sites and the acoustic environment, whilst streaming spectrographic software will be used to analyze pant hoots in various contexts.For chimpanzees, where relative party size and recruitment of allies are key factors in intergroup (e.g. lethal raiding) and intragroup relations, vocalization behaviour is an important means through which individuals monitor each other's locations and behaviour, especially when not in visual contact. The extremely large home ranges of savanna chimpanzees (270km2 compared to 15km2 in forests) are likely to impact the nature of parties, how they coordinate movement, and possibly on community social structure itself. Revealing how savanna chimpanzees maintain their social relationships in these conditions has implications for both Pliocene hominins that evolved in a similar habitat, and for the adaptability of a fission fusion system. More broadly, this study will develop and demonstrate a new technology that can be used for behavioral, ecological, and conservation research on any loudly vocalizing animal. Through training in the appropriate field and analytical methods, Tanzanian researchers and wildlife managers can then apply this new, useful technology to new additional research questions.