Gibbon travel paths are goal oriented

Avoiding Cognitive Trap in Habitat Restoration: A Case Study of the World's Rarest Primate

The lack of knowledge regarding the basic ecological traits of an endangered species may lead to traps in habitat restoration efforts. Understanding the ranging ecology of endangered species is essential in avoiding these traps. The Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), the world's rarest primate, reportedly takes refuge in suboptimal montane habitats and occupies an abnormally large home range, resulting in suggestions for enhancing montane habitat quality with high priority. However, these conservation suggestions and actions are not based on solid science. For the first time, we habituated two groups of Hainan gibbon, and studied their ranging ecology over a year from January to December 2022. We found that the average home range size of these groups was 164.5 ± 70.6 ha (95% KDE-href) and 155.2 ± 71.1 ha (95% MCP), which is comparable to other Nomascus gibbons and represents an adaptive trait in response to their heterogeneous habitat. Furthermore, gibbons have shown a preference for higher-altitude habitats between 800 and 1100 m, where food is more abundant than in low-altitude habitats. Our findings, combined with the evidence of favorable food conditions and short interbirth intervals of the Hainan gibbon, indicate that montane habitats meet gibbons' life-history requirements and are suitable for them. The idea that "montane habitat is suboptimal" is a cognitive trap. Given the Hainan gibbons' isolated habitat is approaching saturation, we suggest prioritizing ecological corridor construction to enable gibbons to rapidly gain access to other suitable montane forests.

Wild Tibetan Macaques Use a Route-Based Mental Map to Navigate in Large-Scale Space

Many animals face significant challenges in locating and acquiring resources that are unevenly distributed in space and time. In the case of nonhuman primates, it remains unclear how individuals remember goal locations and whether they navigate using a route-based or a coordinate-based mental representation when moving between out-of-sight feeding and resting sites (i.e., large-scale space). Here, we examine spatial memory and mental map formation in wild Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) inhabiting a mountainous, forested ecosystem characterized by steep terrain that limits direct vision to 25 meters. We used an instantaneous scan sampling technique at 10-min intervals to record the behavior and location of macaques on Mt. Huangshan, Anhui Province, China, from September 2020 to August 2023. Over 214 days, we obtained 7180 GPS points of the macaques' locations. Our study revealed that the macaques reused 1264 route segments (average length 204.26 m) at least four times each. The number of feeding and resting sites around the habitual route segment, terrain roughness, and dense vegetation areas significantly influenced the use of route segments by our study group. In addition, we found evidence that the monkeys reused 48 nodes to reorient their travel path. We found that monkeys approached a revisited foraging or resting site from the same limited set of directions, which is inconsistent with a coordinate-based spatial representation. In addition, the direction in which the macaques left a feeding or resting site was significantly different from the straight-line direction required to reach their next feeding or resting site, suggesting that the macaques frequently reoriented their direction of travel to reach their goal. Finally, on average, macaques traveled 24% (CI = 1.24) farther than the straight-line distance to reach revisited feeding and resting sites. From our robust data set, we conclude that Tibetan macaques navigate large spaces using a route-based mental representation that appears to help them locate food resources in dense, rugged montane forests and heterogeneous habitats.

Route Planning Process by the Endangered Black Lion Tamarin in Different Environmental Contexts

Daily, primates take a variety of decisions to establish why, when, and where to move. However, little is known about the factors influencing and shaping primate daily routes. We investigated the decision-making processes linked to route planning in four groups of black lion tamarins (BLT-Leontopithecus chrysopygus). We studied these endangered platyrrhines within four distinct environmental contexts across their natural distribution (i.e., a continuous forest, a 500-ha forest fragment, a 100-ha forest fragment, and a riparian forest). We used the Change Point Test to identify the points of significant direction change (CPs), which can be considered travel goals along BLT daily trajectories and are key components of travel planning. Considering the high importance of fruits and gum in BLT's diet, we predicted that feeding trees would be the main factor shaping their paths (feeding CPs-FCPs). Also, given previous evidence that platyrrhines use landmarks (i.e., characteristic features from the terrain) as nodes in route network systems (i.e., points of intersection connecting habitual route segments), we expected part of CPs to be located close to the intersection points and to be associated with "locomotion" behavior (LCPs). Analyzing 61 daily paths in four forest fragments, our results showed that BLTs planned routes to reach feeding trees, which primarily determined path orientation. As hypothesized, locomotion was the most frequent behavior observed in CPs, but only in the continuous and riparian forests, with LCPs located as close to intersections as FCPs. Interestingly, these two areas presented the most extreme values (i.e., higher and lower values, respectively) in terms of used area, richness of resources and distances traveled between fruit-feeding trees. Our results suggest that BLTs plan daily routes conditional on the environmental context to reach travel goals, likely to maximize route efficiency to reach out of sight feeding trees.

Identifying signals of memory from observations of animal movements

Incorporating memory (i.e., some notion of familiarity or experience with the landscape) into models of animal movement is a rising challenge in the field of movement ecology. The recent proliferation of new methods offers new opportunities to understand how memory influences movement. However, there are no clear guidelines for practitioners wishing to parameterize the effects of memory on moving animals. We review approaches for incorporating memory into step-selection analyses (SSAs), a frequently used movement modeling framework. Memory-informed SSAs can be constructed by including spatial-temporal covariates (or maps) that define some aspect of familiarity (e.g., whether, how often, or how long ago the animal visited different spatial locations) derived from long-term telemetry data. We demonstrate how various familiarity covariates can be included in SSAs using a series of coded examples in which we fit models to wildlife tracking data from a wide range of taxa. We discuss how these different approaches can be used to address questions related to whether and how animals use information from past experiences to inform their future movements. We also highlight challenges and decisions that the user must make when applying these methods to their tracking data. By reviewing different approaches and providing code templates for their implementation, we hope to inspire practitioners to investigate further the importance of memory in animal movements using wildlife tracking data.

Choosing the best way: how wild common marmosets travel to efficiently exploit resources

While foraging, animals have to find potential food sites, remember these sites, and plan the best navigation route. To deal with problems associated with foraging for multiple and patchy resources, primates may employ heuristic strategies to improve foraging success. Until now, no study has attempted to investigate experimentally the use of such strategies by a primate in a context involving foraging in large-scale space. Thus, we carried out an experimental field study that aimed to test if wild common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) employ heuristic strategies to efficiently navigate through multiple feeding sites distributed in a large-scale space. In our experiment, we arranged four feeding platforms in a trapezoid configuration with up to 60 possible routes and observe marmosets' decisions under two experimental conditions. In experimental condition I, all platforms contained the same amount of food; in experimental condition II, the platforms had different amounts of food. According to the number and arrangement of the platforms, we tested two heuristic strategies: the Nearest Neighbor Rule and the Gravity Rule. Our results revealed that wild common marmosets prefer to use routes consistent with a heuristic strategy more than expected by chance, regardless of food distribution. The findings also demonstrate that common marmosets seem to integrate different factors such as distance and quantity of food across multiple sites distributed over a large-scale space, employing a combination of heuristic strategies to select the most efficient routes available. In summary, our findings confirm our expectations and provide important insights into the spatial cognition of these small neotropical primates.

Wild gibbons plan their travel pattern according to food types of breakfast

Planning for the future is a complex skill that is often considered uniquely human. This cognitive ability has never been investigated in wild gibbons (Hylobatidae). Here we evaluated the movement patterns from sleeping trees to out-of-sight breakfast trees in two groups of endangered skywalker gibbons (Hoolock tianxing). These Asian apes inhabit a cold seasonal montane forest in southwestern China. After controlling for possible confounding variables including group size, sleeping pattern (sleep alone or huddle together), rainfall and temperature, we found that food type (fruits or leaves) of the breakfast tree was the most important factor affecting gibbon movement patterns. Fruit breakfast trees were more distant from sleeping trees compared with leaf trees. Gibbons left sleeping trees and arrived at breakfast trees earlier when they fed on fruits compared with leaves. They travelled fast when breakfast trees were located further away from the sleeping trees. Our study suggests that gibbons had foraging goals in mind and plan their departure times accordingly. This ability may reflect a capacity for route-planning, which would enable them to effectively exploit highly dispersed fruit resources in high-altitude montane forests.

Movement dynamics of gibbons after the construction of canopy bridges over a park road

Gibbons (Hylobatidae) are species highly adapted to tree-top living. Thus, their movement can be compromised due to the negative impact roads have on canopy habitats. In this study, we built two single-rope artificial canopy bridges and a ladder bridge at two out of five locations where a group of white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand were known to cross a main park road. We compared road crossing frequencies, home-range characteristics, and other ad libitum observations during the periods before and after bridge installation. After bridge construction was complete, the group took 10 weeks to use the single rope bridges to navigate over the road. During 442 group follow observation hours and 539 bridge observation hours, 131 crosses over the road were observed. The adult female usually crossed the road first, and the group showed a clear preference for the single-rope bridges over the ladder bridge (92 crossings versus 5). Gibbons crossed the road approximately once a day and crossed mostly at the bridge locations both before and after bridge construction. There were not significant changes in crossing rates from before (crossing between the tree branches and on the ground) to after bridge installation at both the places where bridges were installed (crossing using the bridges). Nonetheless, with more crossings being in the bridges than on the ground after bridge installation, crossings were presumably safer. These findings suggest that gibbons will cross a road on the ground, risking predation, encountering people, or being hit by a vehicle, but artificial canopy bridges provided a safer crossing option since gibbons no longer crossed on the road or jumped across wide gaps at the two locations where bridges were constructed. Maintaining canopy connectivity over roads using artificial bridges logically improves home range connectivity, potentially gene flow, and safety of canopy dwellers. However, connecting areas which were not previously connected should be considered carefully. The new connection could disrupt group dynamics, particularly for species that defend territories, such as gibbons.

Where to sleep next? Evidence for spatial memory associated with sleeping sites in Skywalker gibbons (Hoolock tianxing)

Finding suitable sleeping sites is highly advantageous but challenging for wild animals. While suitable sleeping sites provide protection against predators and enhance sleep quality, these sites are heterogeneously distributed in space. Thus, animals may generate memories associated with suitable sleeping sites to be able to approach them efficiently when needed. Here, we examined traveling trajectories (i.e., direction, linearity, and speed of traveling) in relation to sleeping sites to assess whether Skywalker gibbons (Hoolock tianxing) use spatial memory to locate sleeping trees. Our results show that about 30% of the sleeping trees were efficiently revisited by gibbons and the recursive use of trees was higher than a randomly simulated visiting pattern. When gibbons left the last feeding tree for the day, they traveled in a linear fashion to sleeping sites out-of-sight (> 40 m away), and linearity of travel to sleeping trees out-of-sight was higher than 0.800 for all individuals. The speed of the traveling trajectories to sleeping sites out-of-sight increased not only as sunset approached, but also when daily rainfall increased. These results suggest that gibbons likely optimized their trajectories to reach sleeping sites under increasing conditions of predatory risk (i.e., nocturnal predators) and uncomfortable weather. Our study provides novel evidence on the use of spatial memory to locate sleeping sites through analyses of movement patterns, which adds to an already extensive body of literature linking cognitive processes and sleeping patterns in human and non-human animals.

The impact of roads on the movement of arboreal fauna in protected areas: the case of lar and pileated gibbons in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

The unavoidable impact of roads on arboreal fauna in protected areas has received little attention. We investigated this impact on two gibbon species in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand: two groups had home ranges traversed by roads (roadside groups) and another two lived nearby roads (interior groups). Roads partially delineated the edges of home ranges of roadside groups, and gibbons crossed them only at a few locations. Gibbons’ space use decreased near roads for roadside groups and showed road reluctance as their crossing rates were smaller than those produced by a null movement model. Generalised linear models (GLMs) indicated that a long canopy gap reduced gibbons’ crossing probability, whereas forest cover had a positive effect. A large part of the road network had a low probability of being crossed by gibbons according to GLMs, especially at areas around park headquarters. Roads were still relatively permeable to gibbon movement with a mean 35% crossing probability. The relatively short and narrow road network in the park constitutes a positive assessment of the standards of how roads should be built in protected areas. Nonetheless, this assessment might be the consequence of the park being set in a mountainous region with difficulties of road development.

Using natural travel paths to infer and compare primate cognition in the wild

Within comparative psychology, the evolution of animal cognition is typically studied either by comparing indirect measures of cognitive abilities (e.g., relative brain size) across many species or by conducting batteries of decision-making experiments among (typically) a few captive species. Here, we propose a third, complementary approach: inferring and comparing cognitive abilities through observational field records of natural information gradients and the associated variation in decision-making outcomes, using the ranging behavior of wild animals. To demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal, we present the results of a global survey assessing the availability of long-term ranging data sets from wild primates and the willingness of primatologists to share such data. We explore three ways in which such ranging data, with or without the associated behavioral and ecological data often collected by primatologists, might be used to infer and compare spatial cognition. Finally, we suggest how ecological complexity may be best incorporated into comparative analyses.

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Comparing animal ranging decisions in natural habitats has untapped potential

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How decisions vary with natural information gradients reveals wild animal cognition

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Ranging data on at least 164 populations of 105 wild primate species are available

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We present three thought analyses to compare cognition and explain its evolution

Navigating in a challenging semiarid environment: the use of a route-based mental map by a small-bodied neotropical primate

To increase efficiency in the search for resources, many animals rely on their spatial abilities. Specifically, primates have been reported to use mostly topological and rarely Euclidean maps when navigating in large-scale space. Here, we aimed to investigate if the navigation of wild common marmosets inhabiting a semiarid environment is consistent with a topological representation and how environmental factors affect navigation. We collected 497 h of direct behavioral and GPS information on a group of marmosets using a 2-min instantaneous focal animal sampling technique. We found that our study group reused not only long-route segments (mean of 1007 m) but entire daily routes, a pattern that is not commonly seen in primates. The most frequently reused route segments were the ones closer to feeding sites, distant to resting sites, and in areas sparse in tree vegetation. We also identified a total of 56 clustered direction change points indicating that the group modified their direction of travel. These changes in direction were influenced by their close proximity to resting and feeding sites. Despite our small sample size, the obtained results are important and consistent with the contention that common marmosets navigate using a topological map that seems to benefit these animals in response to the exploitation of clustered exudate trees. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that the Caatinga landscape imposes physical restrictions in our group's navigation such as gaps in vegetation, small trees and xerophytic plants. This study, based on preliminary evidence, raises the question of whether navigation patterns are an intrinsic characteristic of a species or are ecologically dependent and change according to the environment.

Spatial cognition in western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): an analysis of distance, linearity, and speed of travel routes

Spatial memory allows animals to retain information regarding the location, distribution, and quality of feeding sites to optimize foraging decisions. Western gorillas inhabit a complex environment with spatiotemporal fluctuations of resource availability, prefer fruits when available, and travel long distances to reach them. Here, we examined movement patterns-such as linearity, distance, and speed of traveling-to assess whether gorillas optimize travel when reaching out-of-sight valued resources. Our results show that gorillas travel patterns are affected by the activity they perform next, the type of food they feed on, and their preference level to specific fruits, suggesting they are able to optimize foraging based on spatial knowledge of their resources. Additionally, gorillas left in the direction of the next resource as soon as they started traveling and decelerated before approaching food resources, as evidence that they have a representation of their exact locations. Moreover, home range familiarity did not influence gorillas' movement patterns, as travel linearity in the core and periphery did not differ, suggesting that they may not depend wholly on a network of paths to navigate their habitat. These results show some overlap with chimpanzees' spatial abilities. Differences between the two ape species exist, however, potentially reflecting more their differences in diet (degree of frugivory) rather than their cognitive abilities. Further studies should focus on determining whether gorillas are able to use shortcuts and/or approach the same goal from multiple directions to better identify the spatial abilities used by this species.

A, Supiansyah, Adul, Cahyaningrum E, Smith DE. Home range variation and site fidelity of Bornean southern gibbons [Hylobates albibarbis] from 2010-2018

Gibbons are highly territorial and have two key areas within these territories. The core area in which we find all sleeping trees and the trees from which the gibbons duet and the wider home range (HR) which has varying levels of overlap with neighbouring gibbon groups. The core area is strenously defended, with the wider HR being more of a shared area for neighbouring groups. We present ranging and movement data on four wild gibbon groups from January 2010 to July 2018. Global Positioning System (GPS) data were collected every 5 mins on habitauted groups in Sebangau, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia resulting in 35,521 waypoints. Gibbon home- and corerange sizes were calculated using 95%, and 50%, volume contours of kernel density estimates. Home-ranges ranged from 58.74-147.75 ha with a mean of 95.7 ± SD 37.75 ha, the highest of comparable Hylobates species. Core-range size ranged from 20.7-51.31 ha with a mean size of 31.7 ± SD 13.76 ha. Gibbons had consistant site fidelity for their home- and core ranges; percentage overlap ranged from 4.3 23.97% with a mean 16.5 ± SD 8.65% overlap in home-range area. Core ranges did not overlap with the exception of two groups, in which a 0.64 ha (2.69%) overlap occurred. Unsurprisingly forest loss from fire does affect the location of the HR of the impacted group, but does not appear to affect adjacent groups, though more data are needed on this. Understanding the complex use of space of these territorial animals is important in assessing both carrying capacity for wild populations and understading how reintroduced gibbon pairs will establish their core and HR.

Topological spatial representation in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)

Many species orient towards specific locations to reach important resources using different cognitive mechanisms. Some of these, such as path integration, are now well understood, but the cognitive orientation mechanisms that underlie movements in non-human primates remain the subject of debate. To investigate whether movements of chacma baboons are more consistent with Euclidean or topological spatial awareness, we investigated whether baboons made repeated use of the same network of pathways and tested three predictions resulting from the hypothesized use of Euclidean and topological spatial awareness. We recorded ranging behaviour of a group of baboons during 234 full days and 137 partial days in the Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa. Results show that our baboons travelled through a dense network of repeated routes. In navigating this route network, the baboons did not approach travel goals from all directions, but instead approached them from a small number of the same directions, supporting topological spatial awareness. When leaving travel goals, baboons' initial travel direction was significantly different from the direction to the next travel goal, again supporting topological spatial awareness. Although we found that our baboons travelled with similar linearity in the core area as in the periphery of their home range, this did not provide conclusive evidence for the existence of Euclidean spatial awareness, since the baboons could have accumulated a similar knowledge of the periphery as of the core area. Overall, our findings support the hypothesis that our baboons navigate using a topological map.

What, where and when: spatial foraging decisions in primates

When exploiting the environment, animals have to discriminate, track, and integrate salient spatial cues to navigate and identify goal sites. Actually, they have to know what can be found (e.g. what fruit), where (e.g. on which tree) and when (in what season or moment of the year). This is very relevant for primate species as they often live in seasonal and relatively unpredictable environments such as tropical forests. Here, we review and compare different approaches used to investigate primate spatial foraging strategies: from direct observations of wild primates to predictions from statistical simulations, including experimental approaches on both captive and wild primates, and experiments in captivity using virtual reality technology. Within this framework, most of these studies converge to show that many primate species can (i) remember the location of most of food resources well, and (ii) often seem to have a goal-oriented path towards spatially permanent resources. Overall, primates likely use mental maps to plan different foraging strategies to enhance their fitness. The majority of studies suggest that they may organise spatial information on food resources into topological maps: they use landmarks to navigate and encode local spatial information with regard to direction and distance. Even though these studies were able to show that primates can remember food quality (what) and its location (where), still very little is known on how they incorporate the temporal knowledge of available food (when). Future studies should attempt to increase our understanding of the potential of primates to learn temporal patterns and how both socio-ecological differences among species and their cognitive abilities influence such behavioural strategies.

Intersection as key locations for bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) traveling within a route network

There is evidence that wild animals are able to recall key locations and associate them with navigational routes. Studies in primate navigation suggest most species navigate through the route network system, using intersections among routes as locations of decision-making. Recent approaches presume that points of directional change may be key locations where animals decide where to go next. Over four consecutive years, we observed how a wild group of bearded capuchin monkeys used a route network system and Change Point locations (CPs) in the Brazilian ecotone of Cerrado-Caatinga. We built 200 daily routes of one wild bearded capuchin group. We used ArcGIS, the Change Point Test, Spatial Analysis in Macroecology (SAM), and statistical models to test the hypothesis that wild bearded capuchins use CPs located along routes in a different fashion than they use the CPs located at intersections of routes. A logistic regression model was used to determine the landscape variables affecting capuchins' directional changes at intersections or along routes. CPs at intersections were important points of travel path changes, whereas CPs along routes represented a zig-zag movement along the routes following the landscape features. CPs at intersections were associated with steeper terrains and shorter distances from important resources, along with better visibility of the home range. Our results support the hypothesis that intersections among routes in the route network system are located at points where monkeys have the best visibility available to make decisions on where to visit next.

Territory surveillance and prey management: Wolves keep track of space and time

Identifying behavioral mechanisms that underlie observed movement patterns is difficult when animals employ sophisticated cognitive‐based strategies. Such strategies may arise when timing of return visits is important, for instance to allow for resource renewal or territorial patrolling. We fitted spatially explicit random‐walk models to GPS movement data of six wolves (Canis lupus; Linnaeus, 1758) from Alberta, Canada to investigate the importance of the following: (1) territorial surveillance likely related to renewal of scent marks along territorial edges, to reduce intraspecific risk among packs, and (2) delay in return to recently hunted areas, which may be related to anti‐predator responses of prey under varying prey densities. The movement models incorporated the spatiotemporal variable “time since last visit,” which acts as a wolf's memory index of its travel history and is integrated into the movement decision along with its position in relation to territory boundaries and information on local prey densities. We used a model selection framework to test hypotheses about the combined importance of these variables in wolf movement strategies. Time‐dependent movement for territory surveillance was supported by all wolf movement tracks. Wolves generally avoided territory edges, but this avoidance was reduced as time since last visit increased. Time‐dependent prey management was weak except in one wolf. This wolf selected locations with longer time since last visit and lower prey density, which led to a longer delay in revisiting high prey density sites. Our study shows that we can use spatially explicit random walks to identify behavioral strategies that merge environmental information and explicit spatiotemporal information on past movements (i.e., “when” and “where”) to make movement decisions. The approach allows us to better understand cognition‐based movement in relation to dynamic environments and resources.

The ecology of white-handed and pileated gibbons in a zone of overlap and hybridization in Thailand

OBJECTIVES

The study of related species in contact zones can elucidate what factors mediate species coexistence and geographical distributions. We investigated niche overlap and group interactions of two gibbon species and their hybrids co-occurring in a zone of overlap and hybridization.

METHODS

The location, composition and behavior of white-handed, pileated, and mixed-species gibbon groups were studied by following them during 31 consecutive months in a relatively large part of the contact zone.

RESULTS

Twenty groups of white-handed gibbon were mapped followed by nine groups of pileated gibbons and five mixed-species groups. White-handed, pileated and mixed-species groups had similar sizes and composition, ate a high proportion of fruits, shared a large number of species in their diets, and presented similar habitat preferences. Group home range sizes did not differ between species and overlapped little with neighboring groups irrespective of species, and intraspecific and interspecific encounter rates were similar.

DISCUSSION

Ecological similarities support that competition between the gibbon species exists and takes the form of interspecific territoriality. However, we could not find any clear mechanism of niche partitioning favoring coexistence between species. Our findings suggest that the contact zone is unstable and is maintained by dispersal inward from groups of the parental species. The relatively low numbers of mixed-species groups and hybrids found suggests a high degree of premating reproductive isolation, perhaps mediated by interspecific miscommunication. The existence of hybrids and backcrosses potentially undetectable from phenotypic characters alone raises the possibility of more widespread introgression than has been evident. Hence, while interspecific territoriality should reduce the rate of gene transfer, it would not necessarily present a barrier to introgression into contiguous populations of the opposite species.

Technology advancing the study of animal cognition: using virtual reality to present virtually simulated environments to investigate nonhuman primate spatial cognition

Virtual simulated environments provide multiple ways of testing cognitive function and evaluating problem solving with humans (e.g., Woollett et al. 2009). The use of such interactive technology has increasingly become an essential part of modern life (e.g., autonomously driving vehicles, global positioning systems (GPS), and touchscreen computers; Chinn and Fairlie 2007; Brown 2011). While many nonhuman animals have their own forms of "technology", such as chimpanzees who create and use tools, in captive animal environments the opportunity to actively participate with interactive technology is not often made available. Exceptions can be found in some state-of-the-art zoos and laboratory facilities (e.g., Mallavarapu and Kuhar 2005). When interactive technology is available, captive animals often selectively choose to engage with it. This enhances the animal's sense of control over their immediate surroundings (e.g., Clay et al. 2011; Ackerman 2012). Such self-efficacy may help to fulfill basic requirements in a species' daily activities using problem solving that can involve foraging and other goal-oriented behaviors. It also assists in fulfilling the strong underlying motivation for contrafreeloading and exploration expressed behaviorally by many species in captivity (Young 1999). Moreover, being able to present nonhuman primates virtual reality environments under experimental conditions provides the opportunity to gain insight into their navigational abilities and spatial cognition. It allows for insight into the generation and application of internal mental representations of landmarks and environments under multiple conditions (e.g., small- and large-scale space) and subsequent spatial behavior. This paper reviews methods using virtual reality developed to investigate the spatial cognitive abilities of nonhuman primates, and great apes in particular, in comparison with that of humans of multiple age groups. We make recommendations about training, best practices, and also pitfalls to avoid.

Rhythmic displays of female gibbons offer insight into the origin of dance

Dance is a universal art form practiced by all human societies and has many functions including sexual attraction, social cohesion, and the therapeutic release of energy. Dance also has been reported in a small number of non-human primate species, in particular apes. However, its function has not been systematically evaluated. We observed 357 intentional, rhythmic, and nonverbal dance displays performed by four adult female cao vit gibbons (Nomascus nasutus) residing in four polygynous groups during 3000 h of observation in Bangliang, Guangxi, China. Females used dance to solicit copulations, as well as to promote a social bond with the group's lone adult male. In addition, this display appears to represent a form of non-aggressive competition among adult females living in the same group. We found that a female who had a weaker social relationship with the breeding male increased her social and sexual access to the male by an increase in dancing frequency. Given that gibbons dance in various behavioral contexts, and appears to serve several important social and sexual functions, a greater understanding of this form of gestural communication offers an instructive model for examining the origin and evolution of dance in humans and other apes.

Vocal correlates of individual sooty mangabey travel speed and direction

Many group-living animals coordinate movements with acoustic signals, but so far most studies have focused on how group movements are initiated. In this study, we investigated movement patterns of wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys), a mostly terrestrial, forest-dwelling primate. We provide quantitative results showing that vocalization rates of mangabey subgroups, but not of focal individuals, correlated with focal individuals’ current movement patterns. More interestingly, vocal behaviour predicted whether individuals changed future speed, and possibly future travel direction. The role of vocalizations as a potential mechanism for the regulation of group movement was further highlighted by interaction effects that include subgroup size and the quality of poly-specific associations. Collectively, our results suggest that primate vocal behaviour can function beyond travel initiation in coordination and regulation of group movements.

Rationalizing spatial exploration patterns of wild animals and humans through a temporal discounting framework

Understanding the exploration patterns of foragers in the wild provides fundamental insight into animal behavior. Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that path lengths (distances between consecutive turns) taken by foragers are well fitted by a power law distribution. Numerous theoretical contributions have posited that "Lévy random walks"-which can produce power law path length distributions-are optimal for memoryless agents searching a sparse reward landscape. It is unclear, however, whether such a strategy is efficient for cognitively complex agents, from wild animals to humans. Here, we developed a model to explain the emergence of apparent power law path length distributions in animals that can learn about their environments. In our model, the agent's goal during search is to build an internal model of the distribution of rewards in space that takes into account the cost of time to reach distant locations (i.e., temporally discounting rewards). For an agent with such a goal, we find that an optimal model of exploration in fact produces hyperbolic path lengths, which are well approximated by power laws. We then provide support for our model by showing that humans in a laboratory spatial exploration task search space systematically and modify their search patterns under a cost of time. In addition, we find that path length distributions in a large dataset obtained from free-ranging marine vertebrates are well described by our hyperbolic model. Thus, we provide a general theoretical framework for understanding spatial exploration patterns of cognitively complex foragers.

Mantled howler monkey spatial foraging decisions reflect spatial and temporal knowledge of resource distributions

An animal's ability to find and relocate food items is directly related to its survival and reproductive success. This study evaluates how mantled howler monkeys make spatial foraging decisions in the wild. Specifically, discrete choice models and agent-based simulations are used to test whether mantled howler monkeys on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, integrate spatial information in order to maximize new leaf flush and fruit gain while minimizing distance traveled. Several heuristic models of decision making are also tested as possible alternative strategies (movement to core home range areas instead of individual trees, travel along a sensory gradient, movement along arboreal pathway networks without a predetermined destination, straight-line travel in a randomly chosen direction, and random walks). Results indicate that although leaves are the single most abundant item in the mantled howler monkey diet, long-distance travel bouts target the areas with the highest concentrations of mature fruits. Observed travel patterns yielded larger estimated quantities of fruit in shorter distances traveled than all alternative foraging strategies. Thus, this study both provides novel information regarding how primates select travel paths and suggests that a highly folivorous primate integrates knowledge of spatiotemporal resource distributions in highly efficient foraging strategies.

Ranging and site fidelity in northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) over different temporal scales

Space-use patterns are crucial to understanding the ecology, evolution, and conservation of primates, but detailed ranging data are scarce for many species, especially those in Southeast Asia. Researchers studying site fidelity to either home ranges or core areas have focused mainly on territorial species, whereas less information is available for non-territorial species. We analyzed the ranging patterns and site fidelity of one wild troop of northern pigtailed macaques over 16 months at different temporal scales. We used characteristic hull polygons in combination with spatial statistics to estimate home ranges and core areas. The total home range and core areas were 449 ha and 190 ha, respectively. Average daily path length was 2,246 m. The macaques showed a high defendabili--ty index according to the expected ranging of a non-territorial species in which movement does not theoretically permit the defense of a large territory. Overall, the study troop ranged more extensively than conspecific groups and closely related species studied elsewhere. These differences may reflect variable troop size, degree of terrestriality and habitat characteristics, but could also reflect methodological differences. The location, size and shape of home ranges and core areas, and extent of daily path lengths changed on a monthly basis resulting in low site fidelity between months. The macaques also showed clear shifts in the location of daily home ranges with low site fidelity scores between consecutive days. Daily home range and daily path length were related to seasonality, with greater values during the fruit-abundant period. Low site fidelity associated with lack of territoriality is consistent with macaques structuring their movement based on available food sources. However, ranging patterns and site fidelity can also be explained by macaques feeding on the move, a foraging strategy that hinders frequent and long visits to the same location.

Gibbon (Hylobates lar) reintroduction success in Phuket, Thailand, and its conservation benefits

We summarize the results from a long-term gibbon reintroduction project in Phuket, Thailand, and evaluate its benefits to conservation. Between October 2002 and November 2012, eight breeding families of white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) were returned to the wild in Khao Phra Thaew non-hunting area (KPT). Wild gibbons were extirpated from Phuket Island by the early 1980s, but the illegal wildlife trade has continued to bring young gibbons from elsewhere to the island's popular tourist areas as pets and photo props. The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP) has rescued and rehabilitated confiscated and donated captive gibbons since 1992 and aims to repopulate the island's last sizable forest area. Following unsuccessful early attempts at translocation in the 1990s, GRP has now developed specific methods for gibbon reintroduction that have led to the establishment of a small independent, reproducing population of captive-raised and wild-born gibbons on Phuket. Eleven infants have been born wild within the reintroduced population, including a second generation wild-born gibbon in September 2012. Benefits of the GRP project include restoration of the gibbon population on Phuket, rescue of illegally kept gibbons, public education, training of personnel in gibbon conservation work, and gaining experience which may prove useful in saving more severely threatened species. It is unlikely that gibbon (and other large primate) translocations will make a significant contribution to conservation of the species as a whole, and primate translocation projects should not be judged solely by this criterion.

Using virtual reality to investigate comparative spatial cognitive abilities in chimpanzees and humans

The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of investigating spatial cognitive abilities across two primate species using virtual reality. In this study, we presented four captive adult chimpanzees and 16 humans (12 children and 4 adults) with simulated environments of increasing complexity and size to compare species' attention to visuo-spatial features during navigation. The specific task required participants to attend to landmarks in navigating along routes in order to localize the goal site. Both species were found to discriminate effectively between positive and negative landmarks. Assessing path efficiency revealed that both species and all age groups used relatively efficient, distance reducing routes during navigation. Compared to the chimpanzees and adult humans however, younger children's performance decreased as maze complexity and size increased. Surprisingly, in the most complex maze category the humans' performance was less accurate compared to one female chimpanzee. These results suggest that the method of using virtual reality to test captive primates, and in particular, chimpanzees, affords significant cross-species investigations of spatial cognitive and developmental comparisons.

Sensory information and associative cues used in food detection by wild vervet monkeys

Understanding animals' spatial perception is a critical step toward discerning their cognitive processes. The spatial sense is multimodal and based on both the external world and mental representations of that world. Navigation in each species depends upon its evolutionary history, physiology, and ecological niche. We carried out foraging experiments on wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda, to determine the types of cues used to detect food and whether associative cues could be used to find hidden food. Our first and second set of experiments differentiated between vervets' use of global spatial cues (including the arrangement of feeding platforms within the surrounding vegetation) and/or local layout cues (the position of platforms relative to one another), relative to the use of goal-object cues on each platform. Our third experiment provided an associative cue to the presence of food with global spatial, local layout, and goal-object cues disguised. Vervets located food above chance levels when goal-object cues and associative cues were present, and visual signals were the predominant goal-object cues that they attended to. With similar sample sizes and methods as previous studies on New World monkeys, vervets were not able to locate food using only global spatial cues and local layout cues, unlike all five species of platyrrhines thus far tested. Relative to these platyrrhines, the spatial location of food may need to stay the same for a longer time period before vervets encode this information, and goal-object cues may be more salient for them in small-scale space.