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Human-introduced long-term traditions in wild redfronted lemurs?
Anna Viktoria Schnoell1, Marie T Dittmann, Claudia Fichtel
1Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Center, Kellnerweg 4, 37077, Göttingen, Germany, aschnoell@dpz.eu.
Animal Cognition
|May 15, 2013
Summary
Redfronted lemurs show stable preferences for opening boxes, suggesting habit formation. They also opportunistically scrounge, indicating multiple factors stabilize traditions.
Area of Science:
- Primate behavior
- Animal cognition
- Social learning
Background:
- Behavioral traditions are rare in species, and their long-term maintenance is poorly understood.
- Redfronted lemurs exhibit social learning, but wild traditions remain undescribed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the development and stability of behavioral traditions in redfronted lemurs.
- To identify factors influencing the maintenance of learned behaviors over time.
Main Methods:
- A three-year social diffusion experiment using artificial feeding boxes with two opening mechanisms (push or pull).
- Observation of individual lemur preferences and behaviors, including manipulation techniques and scrounging.
Main Results:
- Six of 14 lemurs developed stable preferences (pull or push) after two years, suggesting habit formation and reinforcement learning.
- Other lemurs showed unstable preferences, possibly due to task simplicity or low object specificity.
- Most lemurs scrounged opportunistically, unaffected by age, sex, or success rate.
Conclusions:
- Redfronted lemurs can develop stable behavioral preferences through learning.
- Flexible technique use and opportunistic scrounging may contribute to the stabilization of traditions.
- Further research is needed to fully understand the factors maintaining behavioral traditions in this species.
