Dissertation Research: Food-associated Calls and Social Foraging Decisions in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

此前的研究发现，黑猩猩在寻找食物时，经常会发出与食物相关的叫声，这些叫声可能会为其他黑猩猩提供有关所发现食物数量和质量的信息。这项研究将结合对圈养黑猩猩的实验和对野生黑猩猩的观察来解决一个长期存在的难题：既然黑猩猩经常争夺食物，为什么它们要向其他黑猩猩提供有关它们发现的食物的信息？这项研究将检验一个核心假设，即黑猩猩从发出这些叫声中受益，不是通过分享食物，而是通过与有价值的群体成员协调旅行。对圈养黑猩猩的实验将测试黑猩猩听到其他黑猩猩与食物有关的声音录音后是否会增加自己的觅食努力。对野生黑猩猩的观察有望表明，黑猩猩在与其群体中有价值的成员（如配偶和盟友）在一起时会更频繁地呼叫，而且当黑猩猩听到这种呼叫时，它们会花更多的时间在给定的地点寻找食物。这项研究将导致更好地了解与食物相关的通信在黑猩猩的社会觅食决策中所起的作用。通过从社会决策的角度来探讨食物相关呼叫产生的难题，这些研究将改变我们对这种呼叫行为的理解，同时为沟通在社会决策过程中所起的作用提供新的见解。

Previous studies have found that chimpanzees often give food-associated vocalizations when they find food, and that these vocalizations may provide other chimpanzees with information about the amount and quality of the food that has been discovered. This study will use a combination of experiments with captive chimpanzees and observations of wild chimpanzees to solve a long-standing puzzle:given that chimpanzees often compete over food, why should they provide other chimpanzees with such information about food that they have found? This study will test the central hypothesis that chimpanzees benefit from giving these calls, not by sharing food, but by coordinating their travel with valued group members. Experiments with captive chimpanzees will test whether chimpanzees that hear recordings of food-associated vocalizations from other chimpanzees increase their own foraging effort. Observations of wild chimpanzees are expected to show that chimpanzees call more frequently when with valued members of their group, such as mates and allies, and that when chimpanzees hear such calls, they spend more time searching for food in a given spot. This research will result in a greater understanding of the role food-associated communication play in the social foraging decisions of chimpanzees. By approaching the puzzle of food-associated call production from a social decision-making perspective, these studies will transform our understanding of this calling behavior while simultaneously providing novel insight into the role communication plays in social decision-making processes.