Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social responsiveness in female nonhuman primates

在群居物种中，群体中的个体利用最亲近的人的位置或行为来影响自己行为的程度是不同的；这被称为社会反应。虽然之前的研究已经证明，群体中个体的社会反应差异会影响整个群体的行为方式，但这项研究是通过实验室工作或使用计算机模拟进行的。为了更好地理解这一现象及其与社会行为演变的关系，本博士论文研究项目在自然环境中考察了这些关系。研究人员使用新的跟踪技术，并通过引入非侵入性的、基于图像的技术来跟踪非人类灵长类动物在野外的运动和相互作用，从而推动了生物人类学领域的发展。通过该项目，研究者为硕士和本科生的论文项目创造了机会，并针对中学生开发了新的集体动物行为教育模块。集体行为研究人员提出，社会反应性个体根据邻居给出的线索对环境条件和资源位置进行推断，而无反应性个体通过对环境的独立调查私下收集信息。理论预测，群体内社会反应的差异程度会产生群体水平的特征，如凝聚力和集体决策机制，这反过来又会对个体适应性产生影响。该项目有三个具体目标：(1)确定野生雌性草原狒狒具有社会反应的环境；(2)检验社会反应的变异是否影响集体行为；(3)根据群体构成对集体运动的预期效应检验群体构成是否影响个体适合度。为了实现这些目标，使用3D立体摄像和gps加速度计环在现场收集新数据。在50多年的人口监测中收集的长期人口统计和行为数据用于将结果背景化。此外，在高度社会化的灵长类动物中，通过同时考虑个体变异对集体行为的“自下而上”影响和集体行为对个体适应度的“自上而下”影响，本项目为社会反应的适应价值及其在群体水平现象模式中的作用提供了新的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

In social species, there is variation in the extent to which individuals within groups use the position or behaviors of those closest to them to inform their own behavior; this is called social responsiveness. While previous research has demonstrated that variation in social responsiveness among individuals in a group influences ways in which the whole group behaves, this research has been through work in laboratories or using computer simulations. In order to better understand this phenomenon and how it relates to the evolution of social behavior, this doctoral dissertation research project examines these relationships in natural settings. The investigators use new tracking technologies and advance the field of biological anthropology by introducing non-invasive, image-based techniques for tracking nonhuman primate movements and interactions in the wild. Through this project the investigators create opportunities for both masters’ and undergraduate thesis projects and develop new educational modules on collective animal behavior targeted toward middle-school students. Collective behavior researchers have proposed that socially responsive individuals follow cues given by neighbors to make inferences about environmental conditions and resource locations, while unresponsive individuals gather information privately through independent investigation of the environment. Theory predicts that the extent of within-group variation in social responsiveness produces group-level traits, such as cohesion and collective decision-making regimes, which in turn have consequences for individual fitness. This project has three specific objectives: (1) identify the contexts in which wild female savannah baboons are socially responsive; (2) examine if variation in social responsiveness affects collective behavior; and (3) test if group composition affects individual fitness according to its expected effects on collective movement. To achieve these objectives, novel data are collected in the field using 3D stereo videography and GPS-accelerometer collars. Long-term demographic and behavioral data collected over five decades of population monitoring are used to contextualize results. Furthermore, by considering the simultaneous “bottom-up” effects of individual variation on collective behavior and the “top-down” effects of collective behavior on individual fitness in a highly social primate, this project offers novel insight into the adaptive value of social responsiveness and its role in patterning group-level phenomena.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.