Reports
Program No.17-006 (Collaborative Research)
St. Andrews International Conference on Animal Social Learning
Michael A. Huffman
Period: June 13th - 20th, 2005
The St. Andrews International Conference on Animal Social Learning was
held from June 15th to the 20th on the campus of the University of St.
Andrews, Scotland. This conference focused on a wide variety of currently
popular topics in social learning, cultural behavior and communication in
animals. The main purpose of the meeting was to bring together experts and
students in the field to discuss current topics and future research
paradigms. The conference was hosted by professors Kevin Laland、Andy
Whiten and Vincent Janik of the Center for Social Learning and Cognitive
at the University of St. Andrews.
Studies from a broad range of disciplines within ethology and
psychology covering a plethora of animal species including ants, fish,
birds, elephants and primates were presented. The conference was divided
into 6 sessions: 'Conceptual issues in the study of social learning',
'Inferring psychological mechanisms from behavior', 'Ecological
perspectives on social learning', Animal traditions and culture', 'Social
learning in animal communication', and 'Observational learning and
teaching', with 99 registered speakers in all. Each session was started
off with a plenary lecture given by a representative senior scientist of
each respective area of research (Jeff Galef, Gyorgy Gergely, Louis
Lefebvre, Carel van Schaik, Christophe Boesch, Michael Beecher, Cecilia
Heyes). Each night all participants gathered around the posters set up in
the meeting hall's front lobby and engaged in vigorous discussion.
At the conference, I presented an oral paper (abstract below)
co-authored by Japanese and Italian collaborators on our joint research
into the role of social learning in the acquisition of self-medicative
behaviors in wild chimpanzees. Two posters were also presented together
PRI graduate student Charmalie Nahallage and others on aspects of
acquisition, development and transmission of stone handling, a cultural
behavior in Japanese macaques (abstract below).
Oral presentation
The role of social learning in the acquisition and transmission of
leaf-swallowing behavior, a self-medicative behavior in chimpanzees.
1 HUFFMAN, Michael. A., 2 SPIEZIO, Catrina. 3 SGARAVATTI, Andrea. 4
HIRATA, Satoshi 5 GRASSI, D.
1) Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan e-mail:
Huffman@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp, 2) Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, ISAS-SISSA,
Trieste, Italy, 3 Department of Psychology, University of Trieste,
Italy, 4 Great Ape Research Institute, Tamano, Okayama, Japan, 5 Parco
Natura Viva Garda Zoological Park, Verona, Italy
Various lines of evidence have led to the hypothesis that whole
leaf-swallowing behavior (WLSB), a well-documented self-medicative
behavior of great apes, is acquired in part by social learning and
culturally transmitted across generations. Details of this process
remain elusive however, as it is difficult to follow the actual
acquisition by individuals under natural conditions. To help test this
hypothesis, we carried out an experimental study on 3 WLSB naive captive
groups of healthy chimpanzees of different social composition (adult
males + females; adult male + adult females + young; adult males only)
to investigate the modes and pathways of acquisition and diffusion. It
was established that this behavioral response is elicited in captivity
by healthy individuals, as a consequence of the physical properties of
the leaves, and not innately as a response to illness. In all three
groups, WLSB was acquired by at least one individual spontaneously, but
all individuals of any one group did not acquire it. Acquisition was
closely tied to whether or not close observation of a conspecific WLSB
'model' occurred during test sessions. The pathways and degree of
diffusion varied from group to group, but each case was strongly
influenced by such characteristics as their respective social networks
and the social status of the first individual to handle the test
stimuli.
Posters
No. 1
Development, acquisition and diffusion of stone handling behaviors
among a Japanese macaque colony
NAHALLAGE Charmalie & HUFFMAN Michael A., Section of Ecology,
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan.
E-mail : nahallag@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Stone handling (SH), a behavioral tradition has been documented in
detail in two free- ranging troops of Japanese macaques and is known to
occur in at least nine free-ranging and five captive troops across
Japan. However, few systematic attempts have been made to elucidate the
acquisition process of this behavior in young individuals to quantifying
the relative influence of the mother, siblings and other troop members.
We conducted an 18-month study of a captive troop in the Primate
Research Institute. 878 hours of focal observations, distributed equally
across all seasons and times of the day, among all individuals were
collected. In this troop SH appears to have reached the tradition phase
and is transmitted across generations. Infants of frequent SH mothers
(1.3-2.3 bouts/hour) start the behavior significantly earlier than
infants of occasional (0.2 - 0.8 bouts/hour) and rare (0.9 - 0.18
bouts/hour) SH mothers. Infants of non SH mothers were the last to
acquire it among peers. Frequent SH mothers share many similar
behavioral patterns with their offspring. While rare SH mothers share
less patterns, than older siblings do, with their infants. These results
help demonstrate a clear role for social learning in the acquisition and
transmission of SH behavior.
No. 2
Stone handling as a behavioral tradition: a comparative study in 10
troops of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata).
Michael HUFFMAN1, Jean-Baptiste LECA1, Noelle GUNST2, and Charmalie
NAHALLAGE1,
1: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Japan.
2: Department of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA.
Stone handling consists for an individual of manipulating stones by
performing various behavioral patterns. Previous findings from the
Arashiyama and Takasakiyama populations suggest that stone handling is a
behavioral tradition for these groups. Here we present more systematic
investigations of this behavior from a wider variety of troops as a
beginning to better understand the context of occurrence and its
possible function. The objective of this report is to investigate the
roles of demographic, social, behavioral, and ecological factors
influencing the diffusion and maintenance of stone handling in Japanese
macaques. A comparative study was conducted in 10 troops within Japan: 4
captive groups (Inuyama) and 6 free-ranging provisioned populations at
Arashiyama, Koshima, Shodoshima, and Takasakiyama. The same observation
procedure were used: video-recorded focal sampling interspersed with
group activity scan sampling. Our goals are: 1) to provide a
comprehensive descriptive inter-group comparison of the form and
diffusion rate of stone handling according
to socio-demographic factors (group size, group composition and
group cohesion) as well as ecological factors (stone availability,
season); 2) to test stone handling as a socially induced behaviour; 3)
to investigate the maintenance of stone handling in two long-term
studied troops at Arashiyama and Takasakiyama.
Participants relaxing
Prof. Susan Perry and Charmalie Nahallage
HOPE Project< >
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