Wild minds: how do apes learn about and use their physical environments?

项目背景野生猩猩(Pongo spp.)它们面临着各种各样的身体、认知和情感挑战，包括食物供应的波动，在动态的森林树冠上航行，获得复杂的机械筑巢技能，长途旅行，以及应对蛇、栖息地丧失和与人类的致命冲突等威胁。由于这些困难，恢复和释放的猩猩可能会挣扎着适应野外。为了成功适应，康复的猩猩必须对这些挑战具有韧性，并在面对逆境时表现出毅力。本项目采用不同的研究方法相结合的方法来解决圈养大猩猩的心理韧性问题。复原力文献综述。这项研究的目的是系统地总结现有的关于人和动物韧性的文献。目标如下1.1：了解复原力的关键组成部分。1.2：总结人类常用的复原力培养方法及其有效性。1.3：总结动物常用的复原力培养方法及其有效性。1.4：就猩猩康复中心的潜在有效复原力培养方法提出建议。2.禁闭研究。了解访客的存在/缺席对大猩猩行为的影响。2.1：比较猩猩和大猩猩在有和没有大量访客的一段时间内的社交、探索和与压力相关的行为。2.2：尝试一种新的姿势分类方法，看看特定的姿势是否与压力相关的行为相关。3.复原力研究。在圈养大猩猩和猩猩身上试验韧性建立方法。3.1：比较对照组和治疗组之间的持久性(尝试使用设备的时间长度)。3.2：比较对照组和治疗组之间的成功率(使用工具成功检索食物的次数)。3.3：比较对照组和治疗组之间操纵浏览所花费的总时间。新奇客体研究。评估圈养大猩猩和猩猩的个性特征。4.1：比较所有个体之间接近的潜伏期(表明新的恐惧症)。4.2：比较所有个体在操纵物体和操纵类型(表明探索风格)上花费的时间。4.3：比较所有个体在获得食物奖励(表明解决问题的能力)方面的成功。案例研究：吉瓦。评估有认知和发育异常的猩猩的工具使用能力。5.1：评估Jiwa使用工具的能力。5.2：试训方法，演示工具的使用，并将工具的使用分解为简化的阶段。5.3：确定Jiwa发育的关键发育阶段，并将这些阶段与苏门答腊猩猩(Pongo Abelii)的平均年龄进行比较。研究方法的新颖性研究方法包括各种方法，包括文献综述、行为观察和实验。复原能力建设实验将涉及一种需要使用工具的新型设备，旨在鼓励非人类类人猿的坚持不懈和解决问题。潜在的应用和好处这项研究的结果将提供给总部设在印度尼西亚的猩猩兽医咨询小组，这是一个由猩猩保护者组成的团体。希望这项研究将有助于为未来在类人猿恢复力领域的康复技术提供信息。

Project backgroundWild orangutans (Pongo spp.) face a diverse range of physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges, including fluctuating food availability, navigating a dynamic forest canopy, gaining mechanically complex nest-building skills, travelling for long distances, and coping with threats such as snakes, habitat loss, and lethal conflict with humans. Because of these difficulties, rehabilitated and released orangutans can struggle with adapting to the wild. In order to successfully adapt, rehabilitated orangutans must be resilient to these challenges and demonstrate perseverance in the face of adversity. This project uses a combination of different research methods in order to address the issue of psychological resilience in captive great apes.Aims and objectives1. Resilience literature review. The aim of this study is to systematically summarise the existing literature on human and animal resilience. The objectives are as follows 1.1: Gain an understanding of the key components of resilience. 1.2: Summarise common resilience-building methods used for humans and their effectiveness. 1.3: Summarise common resilience-building methods used for animals and their effectiveness.1.4: Make recommendations for potentially effective resilience-building methods in the context of orangutan rehabilitation centres. 2. Lockdown study. Understand the effect of visitor presence/absence on great ape behaviour.2.1: Compare the social, exploration, and stress-related behaviours of orangutans and gorillas during periods of time with and without significant visitor presence. 2.2: Trial a new methodology for categorising posture, to see whether specific postures are correlated with stress-related behaviours. 3. Resilience study. Trial a resilience building method in captive gorillas and orangutans.3.1: Compare the persistence (length of time attempting to use device) between control and treatment group.3.2: Compare the success rate (number of times tool is used to retrieve food successfully) between control and treatment group.3.3: Compare total time spent manipulating of browse between control and treatment group.4. Novel object study. Assess personality traits in captive gorillas and orangutans. 4.1: Compare latency to approach (indication of neophobia) between all individuals.4.2: Compare time spent manipulating object and type of manipulation (indication of exploration style) between all individuals.4.3: Compare success at obtaining food reward (indication of problem-solving ability) between all individuals.5. Case study: Jiwa. Assess tool using ability in orangutan with cognitive and developmental abnormalities. 5.1: Assess Jiwa's ability to use tools. 5.2: Trial training method to demonstrate tool use and break tool use down into simplified stages.5.3: Identify key developmental stages in Jiwa's development and compare these with average ages for Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii).Novelty of the research methodologyThe research methodology includes a variety of methods, including literature reviews, behavioural observations, and experiments. The resilience-building experiments will involve a novel apparatus requiring tool use, designed to encourage persistence and problem-solving in non-human great apes.Potential applications and benefitsThe findings of this research will be made available to the Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group, based in Indonesia, which is a group of orangutan conservationists. It is hoped that this research will help to inform future rehabilitation techniques in the area of great ape resilience.