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

行为灵活性，即在不同环境中改变行为的能力，是人类的一个关键特征，但人们对这种特征是如何在我们的血统中出现的了解较少。研究表明，非人类灵长类动物表现出比之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问题的一种方法是通过比较研究空间是如何被利用的，空间代表了我们亲密的非人类灵长类亲属所表现出的行为决定的范围。特别是，了解不同灵长类动物对食物资源的波动或社会关系的变化而改变其行为的能力，有可能为促进灵长类动物之间的行为差异提供有价值的见解，这种差异在人类进化中的重要性，以及我们人类祖先的行为能力。这一博士论文研究项目考察了人类近亲野生群体的空间使用策略，以调查食物可获得性的自然变化和社会动态的变化如何解释空间使用的差异。这项研究有助于研究生和本科生的培训以及灵长类动物的保护。本研究使用从五个非人类灵长类种群的家园范围收集的特定资源可用性、它们之间相互作用的所有发生情况以及焦点个体的日常跟踪来记录它们家园范围内群体活动的启动。这些数据被用来解决三个主要问题：家庭范围特定资源获取的差异促进了空间使用策略的差异，范围重叠的差异是否与群体之间社会关系的差异有关，以及群体规模和领导力的差异是否影响群体迁移决策。除了满足人类学和认知科学对行为变异研究日益增长的需求外，这项研究还在数据收集和分析方面采用了新的技术方法。空间显式资源建模、社会网络分析和群体水平比较的组合被用来评估灵长类空间使用策略的灵活性。这项研究不仅解决了关于行为变异进化的长期问题，还可以用来为旨在保护世界各地非人类灵长类动物的保护战略提供参考。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.