Doctoral Dissertation Research: Behavioral flexibility and space use in nonhuman primates

行为灵活性，或在不同环境中改变行为的能力，是人类的一个关键特征，但这种特征如何出现在我们的血统中却鲜为人知。研究表明，非人类灵长类动物表现出比以前假设的更大的行为灵活性。探讨人类行为灵活性的出现和本质的一种方法是通过比较研究空间是如何被使用的，作为我们的近亲非人类灵长类动物中行为决定范围的代表。特别是，了解不同灵长类动物改变其行为以应对食物资源可用性波动或社会关系变化的能力，有可能为促进灵长类动物之间的行为变异、这种变异在人类进化中的重要性以及我们人类祖先的行为能力提供有价值的见解。本博士论文研究项目探讨了人类近亲野生群体的空间利用策略，以研究食物供应的自然变化和社会动态的变化如何解释空间利用的差异。该项目有助于研究生和本科生的培训，以及灵长类conservation.This研究使用的家域特定的资源可用性收集的五个非人灵长类动物群体的家域，所有发生的相互作用，并每天跟随焦点个人的文件启动组运动在他们的家域。这些数据被用来解决三个主要问题：什么样的差异，在家庭范围内的特定资源访问促进空间使用策略的变化，是否在范围重叠的差异是联系在一起的群体之间的社会关系的差异，以及是否在组的大小和领导力的差异影响组的运动决策。除了解决人类学和认知科学对行为变化调查日益增长的需求外，这项研究还在数据收集和分析方面采用了新的技术方法。空间上明确的资源建模，社会网络分析和组级比较的组合被用来评估灵长类动物空间使用策略的灵活性。该研究不仅解决了长期存在的行为变异进化问题，还可用于制定旨在保护世界各地非人类灵长类动物的保护策略。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Behavioral flexibility, or the ability to change one’s behavior in different contexts, is a key human trait, but how this trait emerged in our lineage is less understood. Research shows that non-human primates show more behavioral flexibility than previously assumed. One way to approach the question of the emergence and nature of human behavioral flexibility is through a comparative study of how spaces are used, as representations of the range of behavioral decisions shown among our close nonhuman primate relatives. In particular, understanding the capability of different primates to modify their behavior in response to the fluctuating availability of food resources or changes in social relationships has the potential to provide valuable insights into promotes behavioral variation among primates, the importance of such variability in human evolution, and the behavioral capabilities of our human ancestors. This doctoral dissertation research project examines space use strategies of wild groups of a close human relative, to investigate how natural variation in food availability and changes in social dynamics can explain differences in space use. This project contributes to the training of graduate and undergraduate students as well as primate conservation.This study uses home range specific resource availability collected across the home ranges of five nonhuman primate groups, all occurrences of interactions between them, and daily follows of focal individuals to document initiations of group movements within their home ranges. These data are used to address three main questions: what differences in home range specific resource access promotes variation in space use strategies, whether differences in ranging overlap is linked to differences in social relationships between groups, and whether differences in group size and leadership influence group movement decisions. In addition to addressing the growing demand for investigations into behavioral variation from both anthropology and cognitive sciences, this research implements new technological approaches in data collection and analyses. A combination of spatially explicit resource modelling, social network analyses, and group-level comparisons are used to evaluate flexibility in primate space use strategies. This research not only addresses long-standing questions on the evolution of behavioral variation but can also be used to inform conservation strategies aimed at protecting non-human primates across the world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.