scholarly journals Do solitary foraging nocturnal mammals plan their routes?

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 638-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Joly ◽  
Elke Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Route Planning ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Detection Distance

Large-brained diurnal mammals with complex social systems are known to plan where and how to reach a resource, as shown by a systematic movement pattern analysis. We examined for the first time large-scale movement patterns of a solitary-ranging and small-brained mammal, the mouse lemur ( Microcebus murinus ), by using the change-point test and a heuristic random travel model to get insight into foraging strategies and potential route-planning abilities. Mouse lemurs are small nocturnal primates inhabiting the seasonal dry deciduous forest in Madagascar. During the lean season with limited food availability, these lemurs rely on few stationary food resources. We radio-tracked seven lemurs and analysed their foraging patterns. First change-points coincided with out-of-sight keystone food resources. Travel paths were more efficient in detecting these resources than a heuristic random travel model within limits of estimated detection distance. Findings suggest that even nocturnal, solitary-ranging mammals with small brains plan their route to an out-of-sight target. Thus, similar ecological pressures may lead to comparable spatial cognitive skills irrespective of the degree of sociality or relative brain size.

scholarly journals Extended parenting and the evolution of cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20190495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Uomini ◽  
Joanna Fairlie ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
Michael Griesser
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cultural Learning

Traditional attempts to understand the evolution of human cognition compare humans with other primates. This research showed that relative brain size covaries with cognitive skills, while adaptations that buffer the developmental and energetic costs of large brains (e.g. allomaternal care), and ecological or social benefits of cognitive abilities, are critical for their evolution. To understand the drivers of cognitive adaptations, it is profitable to consider distant lineages with convergently evolved cognitions. Here, we examine the facilitators of cognitive evolution in corvid birds, where some species display cultural learning, with an emphasis on family life. We propose that extended parenting (protracted parent–offspring association) is pivotal in the evolution of cognition: it combines critical life-history, social and ecological conditions allowing for the development and maintenance of cognitive skillsets that confer fitness benefits to individuals. This novel hypothesis complements the extended childhood idea by considering the parents' role in juvenile development. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses, we show that corvids have larger body sizes, longer development times, extended parenting and larger relative brain sizes than other passerines. Case studies from two corvid species with different ecologies and social systems highlight the critical role of life-history features on juveniles’ cognitive development: extended parenting provides a safe haven, access to tolerant role models, reliable learning opportunities and food, resulting in higher survival. The benefits of extended juvenile learning periods, over evolutionary time, lead to selection for expanded cognitive skillsets. Similarly, in our ancestors, cooperative breeding and increased group sizes facilitated learning and teaching. Our analyses highlight the critical role of life-history, ecological and social factors that underlie both extended parenting and expanded cognitive skillsets. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

scholarly journals Communicative roots of complex sociality and cognition

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Roberts ◽  
Sam G. B. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Complex Species ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Species Comparisons ◽  
Group Members ◽  
High Degree

Mammals living in more complex social groups typically have large brains for their body size and many researchers have proposed that the primary driver of the increase in brain size through primate and hominin evolution are the selection pressures associated with sociality. Many mammals, and especially primates, use flexible signals that show a high degree of voluntary control and these signals may play an important role in maintaining and coordinating interactions between group members. However, the specific role that cognitive skills play in this complex communication, and how in turn this relates to sociality, is still unclear. The hypothesis for the communicative roots of complex sociality and cognition posits that in socially complex species, conspecifics develop and maintain bonded relationships through cognitively complex communication more effectively than through less cognitively complex communication. We review the research evidence in support of this hypothesis and how key features of complex communication such as intentionality and referentiality are underpinned by complex cognitive abilities. Exploring the link between cognition, communication and sociality provides insights into how increasing flexibility in communication can facilitate the emergence of social systems characterized by bonded social relationships, such as those found in primates and humans. To move the field forward and carry out both the within and between species comparisons, we advocate the use of social network analysis, which provides a novel way to describe and compare social structure. Using this approach can lead to a new, systematic way of examining social and communicative complexity across species, something that is lacking in current comparative studies of social structure.

New research frameworks in the study of chimpanzee and gorilla sociality and communication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam G. B. Roberts ◽  
Anna Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Social Evolution ◽  
Research Frameworks ◽  
New Research ◽  
Large Groups

Group size in primates is strongly correlated with brain size, but exactly what makes larger groups more ‘socially complex’ than smaller groups is still poorly understood. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) are among our closest living relatives and are excellent model species to investigate patterns of sociality and social complexity in primates, and to inform models of human social evolution. The aim of this paper is to propose new research frameworks, particularly the use of social network analysis, to examine how social structure differs in small, medium and large groups of chimpanzees and gorillas, to explore what makes larger groups more socially complex than smaller groups. Given a fission-fusion system is likely to have characterised hominins, a comparison of the social complexity involved in fission-fusion and more stable social systems is likely to provide important new insights into human social evolution

scholarly journals An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie I’Anson Price ◽  
Francisca Segers ◽  
Amelia Berger ◽  
Fabio S Nascimento ◽  
Christoph Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Stingless Bees ◽  
Sugar Content ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Recruitment Communication ◽  
Eusocial Bees ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to (1) the sugar content of forage, (2) the duration of foraging trips and (3) the variation in activity of a colony from one day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly-recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favour food resources that can be monopolised by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.

What determines a boundary for navigating a complex street network: evidence from London taxi drivers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Eva-Maria Griesbauer ◽  
Ed Manley ◽  
Daniel McNamee ◽  
Jeremy Morley ◽  
Hugo Spiers
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Route Planning ◽  
Taxi Drivers ◽  
Street Networks ◽  
Planning Models ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Efficient Planning ◽  
Regent's Park ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Spatial boundaries play an important role in defining spaces, structuring memory and supporting planning during navigation. Recent models of hierarchical route planning use boundaries to plan efficiently first across regions and then within regions. However, it remains unclear which structures (e.g. parks, rivers, major streets, etc.) will form salient boundaries in real-world cities. This study tested licensed London taxi drivers, who are unique in their ability to navigate London flexibly without physical navigation aids. They were asked to indicate streets they considered as boundaries for London districts or dividing areas. It was found that agreement on boundary streets varied considerably, from some boundaries providing almost no consensus to some boundaries consistently noted as boundaries. Examining the properties of the streets revealed that a key factor in the consistent boundaries was the near rectilinear nature of the designated region (e.g. Mayfair and Soho) and the distinctiveness of parks (e.g. Regent's Park). Surprisingly, the River Thames was not consistently considered as a boundary. These findings provide insight into types of environmental features that lead to the perception of explicit boundaries in large-scale urban space. Because route planning models assume that boundaries are used to segregate the space for efficient planning, these results help make predictions of the likely planning demands of different routes in such complex large-scale street networks. Such predictions could be used to highlight information used for navigation guidance applications to enable more efficient hierarchical planning and learning of large-scale environments.

scholarly journals Subcolony Variation in Breeding Success in the Tufted Puffin (Fratercula Cirrhata): Association With Foraging Ecology and Implications

The Auk ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 1149-1157
Author(s):  
J. Mark Hipfner ◽  
Mathieu R. Charette ◽  
Gwylim S. Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Breeding Success ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Egg Yolk ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Tufted Puffin

Abstract Large-scale oceanographic processes are the main drivers of seabird breeding success, but small-scale processes, though not as well understood, can also be important. We compared the success of Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) breeding at two subcolonies only 1.5 km apart on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada, 2002–2005. In addition, we used stable-isotope analysis to test the hypothesis that parental foraging strategies differed between the two subcolonies, potentially underlying the variation in breeding success. Success was concordant across years at the two sites but, overall, Tufted Puffins bred more successfully at Strata Rock than at Puffin Rock. They raised chicks in all four years at Strata Rock, but in only three years at Puffin Rock; in two of those three years, Strata Rock chicks were, on average, 60 g and 100 g heavier than Puffin Rock chicks just before fledging. Discriminant analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable-isotope ratios in egg yolk and chick blood in 2004 and 2005 indicated that parental foraging differed between the two subcolonies, with both spatial (δ13C) and trophic-level (δ15N) differences involved. Thus, our study demonstrates the existence of foraging asymmetries in a pelagic seabird at a small spatial scale (between subcolonies), complementing patterns found at larger scales (between colonies). Moreover, the foraging asymmetries were associated with inequalities in fitness measures. We conclude that small-scale processes—in this case, systematic differences in the foraging ecology of local groups—can interact with large-scale oceanographic processes to determine seabird breeding success. Variation sous-coloniale du succès de reproduction de Fratercula cirrhata: Association avec l'écologie de la quête alimentaire et implications

scholarly journals Accurate Real-Time Traffic Speed Estimation Using Infrastructure-Free Vehicular Networks

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongjian He ◽  
Buyang Cao ◽  
Yan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vehicular Networks ◽  
Route Planning ◽  
Speed Estimation ◽  
Traffic Condition ◽  
Real Time Traffic ◽  
Traffic Trace ◽  
Traffic Speed ◽  
Traffic Speed Estimation

Real-time traffic speed is indispensable for many ITS applications, such as traffic-aware route planning and eco-driving advisory system. Existing traffic speed estimation solutions assume vehicles travel along roads using constant speed. However, this assumption does not hold due to traffic dynamicity and can potentially lead to inaccurate estimation in real world. In this paper, we propose a novel in-network traffic speed estimation approach using infrastructure-free vehicular networks. The proposed solution utilizes macroscopic traffic flow model to estimate the traffic condition. The selected model only relies on vehicle density, which is less likely to be affected by the traffic dynamicity. In addition, we also demonstrate an application of the proposed solution in real-time route planning applications. Extensive evaluations using both traffic trace based large scale simulation and testbed based implementation have been performed. The results show that our solution outperforms some existing ones in terms of accuracy and efficiency in traffic-aware route planning applications.

scholarly journals Health inequality as a large-scale outcome of complex social systems: Lessons for action on the sustainable development goals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Complex Social Systems

© 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs to become real and impactful, taking a “whole systems” perspective on levers for systems change. This article reviews what we have learned over the past century about the large-scale outcome of health inequality, and what we know about the behaviour of complex social systems. This combined knowledge provides lessons on the nature of inequality and what effective action on our big goals, like the SDGs, might look like. It argues that economic theories and positivist social theories which have dominated the last 150 years have largely excluded the nature of human connections to each other, and the environment. This exclusion of intimacy has legitimatised arguments that only value-free economic processes matter for macro human systems, and only abstract measurement constitutes valuable social science. Theories of complex systems provide an alternative perspective. One where health inequality is viewed as emergent, and causes are systemic and compounding. Action therefore needs to be intensely local, with power relationships key to transformation. This requires conscious and difficult intervention on the intolerable accumulation of resources; improved reciprocity between social groups; and reversal of system flows, which at present ebb away from the local and those already disadvantaged.

scholarly journals Beyond Neo-liberalism: Research Policies and Society. The Case of Japan

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain-Marc Rieu
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Science And Technology Policies ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Technology Policies ◽  
Industrial Societies

The idea of decoupling is playing a major role in various interpretations of the present systemic crisis. This crisis is understood as an effect of neo-liberal policies, which have revolutionized economic systems since the 1980s. Decoupling indicates a qualitative change in the level of autonomy of the economic sphere in industrial societies. But a new level of differentiation also generates various types of recoupling, new forms of integration, cooperation and regulation recomposing social systems at another level. The goal of this article is first to situate the idea of decoupling within its conceptual complex. Secondly, the ecological constraint is considered the source of this intense differentiation within social systems, which has intensified since the 1970s. Finally, based on the case of Japan, this paper explains why large-scale science and technology policies developed since the 1990s have to be understood as part of a recoupling process, a project to reconstruct and reach a social and economic coherence in the long term. Similar policies are now implemented by all major industrial nations. Such policies have the potential to overcome neo-liberalism's negative effects.

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