Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human cultural and ecological influences on foraging and social relationships in primates

为了充分了解人类如何影响环境和影响物种变化，有必要应用一种整体的视角，将人类视为生态社区的成员，并认识到人类对环境的影响与文化信仰密切相关。在这个项目中，研究人员研究了人类的态度和行为如何影响查克玛狒狒的觅食和社会关系，这些关系贯穿于人类文化塑造的混合用途景观。人们对环境和动物的态度和与动物的互动是由多种因素形成的，包括个人经历、人口背景和文化知识传播(例如，父母对孩子)。不同人之间的不同态度可能会导致冲突，也可能会促进与狒狒的生存。当人类改变环境时，它们会影响到食物的可获得性和狒狒的捕食风险。捕食风险对非人灵长类社会性的影响，特别是来自人类生态活动和文化信仰的风险，可能会对狒狒的关系质量、繁殖和生存产生重大影响。这项研究将支持灵长类动物保护工作以及学生的指导和培训。该项目采用了一种综合的方法，包括人种学访谈技术、物候学评估和狒狒行为观察，以考察人类态度和行为对长尾狒狒(Papio Hamadryas Ursinus)捕食者敏感觅食和社会关系的影响。这项研究的结果将通过提供关于人类和非人类灵长类之间复杂相互作用的数据来帮助我们理解群落生态学，并提供关于人类和非人类灵长类如何相互影响彼此的社会和生态景观的洞察。这项研究的更广泛影响将导致新的合作，为学生和合作者提供研究方法培训和指导，以及支持保护和管理人-狒狒互动的科学数据。

To fully understand how humans impact the environment and influence species change, it is necessary to apply a holistic perspective that views humans as members of an ecological community and recognize that human impacts on the environment are intimately tied to cultural beliefs. In this project, the researchers examine how human attitudes and behavior influence foraging and social relationships of chacma baboons that range through a mixed-use landscape that has been shaped by human culture. People's attitudes towards and interactions with the environment and animals are formed by a combination of factors, including personal experience, demographic context, and cultural knowledge transmission (e.g., parent to child). Variation in attitudes among different people can either promote conflict or facilitate existence with the baboons. When humans alter the environment, they impact food availability and predation risk for baboons. The impact of predation risk on nonhuman primate sociality, particularly risk stemming from human ecological activities and cultural beliefs, could have significant consequences for baboon relationship quality, reproduction, and survival. This research will support primate conservation efforts and student mentoring and training. This project uses an integrative methodology including ethnographic interview techniques, phenological assessment, and baboon behavioral observations to examine the influence of human attitudes and behavior on chacma baboon (Papio hamadryas ursinus) predator sensitive foraging and social relationships. Results from this research will inform our understanding of community ecology by providing data on the complex interactions between humans and nonhuman primates and provide insight into how people and nonhuman primates mutually influence each other's social and ecological landscapes. The broader impacts of this research will result in new collaborations, research methodology training and mentoring for students and collaborators, and scientific data to support conservation and management of human-baboon interactions.