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，有必要采用一种整体的观点，将人类视为生态群落的成员，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chacma狒狒的觅食和社会关系，这些狒狒分布在一个由人类文化塑造的混合用途景观中。人们对环境和动物的态度以及与之互动是由多种因素共同形成的，包括个人经历、人口背景和文化知识传播（如父母对子女）。不同人之间的态度差异可能会导致冲突，也可能会促进与狒狒的生存。当人类改变环境时，它们会影响狒狒的食物供应和捕食风险。捕食风险对非人类灵长类动物社会性的影响，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和学生指导和培训。本项目采用综合方法，包括人种学访谈技术、物候评估和狒狒行为观察，以研究人类态度和行为对chacma狒狒（Papio hamadryas ursinus）捕食者敏感的觅食和社会关系的影响。这项研究的结果将通过提供人类和非人类灵长类动物之间复杂相互作用的数据，为我们对群落生态学的理解提供信息，并为人类和非人类灵长类动物如何相互影响彼此的社会和生态景观提供见解。这项研究的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，以及支持人类与狒狒互动的保护和管理的科学数据。

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.