Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i>
Cognitive ethology explores the ability of animals to flexibly adapt their behavior to rapid physical and social environment fluctuations. Although there is a historical dichotomy between field and captive studies, recently, a growing interest in questions that sit at the intersection of cognitive a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Animals |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/10/3003 |
| _version_ | 1797515472143384576 |
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| author | Elisabetta Palagi Thore J. Bergman |
| author_facet | Elisabetta Palagi Thore J. Bergman |
| author_sort | Elisabetta Palagi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cognitive ethology explores the ability of animals to flexibly adapt their behavior to rapid physical and social environment fluctuations. Although there is a historical dichotomy between field and captive studies, recently, a growing interest in questions that sit at the intersection of cognitive and adaptive perspectives has helped bridge this divide. By focusing on <i>Theropithecus gelada</i>, we discuss the three main reasons why this hybrid approach is extremely successful. First, captive and wild studies provide data at different social, spatial, and temporal scales that can be synthesized to give a fuller picture of the behavior. Secondly, apparently conflicting results from captive and wild settings are powerful tools to explore behavioral flexibility and latent behavioral tendencies. Third, the different settings provide ways of validating and exploring behaviors that are noticed in the other setting. Although we were able to bring together our captive and wild research to demonstrate these ideas, we could have obtained a more integrated vision on the proximate and ultimate gelada behavioral and cognitive strategies if we had considered this hybrid approach from the beginning. We hope that this manuscript stimulates scholars in designing their studies by taking into account the incredible potential of a complementary captive-wild research approach. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:45:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1afb889e25034a7cb22750cc90de9f79 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-2615 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:45:58Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animals |
| spelling | doaj.art-1afb889e25034a7cb22750cc90de9f792023-11-22T17:12:38ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152021-10-011110300310.3390/ani11103003Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i>Elisabetta Palagi0Thore J. Bergman1Unit of Ethology, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Alessandro Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, ItalyDepartment of Psychology, University of Michigan, 4054 East Hall 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USACognitive ethology explores the ability of animals to flexibly adapt their behavior to rapid physical and social environment fluctuations. Although there is a historical dichotomy between field and captive studies, recently, a growing interest in questions that sit at the intersection of cognitive and adaptive perspectives has helped bridge this divide. By focusing on <i>Theropithecus gelada</i>, we discuss the three main reasons why this hybrid approach is extremely successful. First, captive and wild studies provide data at different social, spatial, and temporal scales that can be synthesized to give a fuller picture of the behavior. Secondly, apparently conflicting results from captive and wild settings are powerful tools to explore behavioral flexibility and latent behavioral tendencies. Third, the different settings provide ways of validating and exploring behaviors that are noticed in the other setting. Although we were able to bring together our captive and wild research to demonstrate these ideas, we could have obtained a more integrated vision on the proximate and ultimate gelada behavioral and cognitive strategies if we had considered this hybrid approach from the beginning. We hope that this manuscript stimulates scholars in designing their studies by taking into account the incredible potential of a complementary captive-wild research approach.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/10/3003cognitive ethologystrength/weakness of captive and wild approachesexperimental and ecological validity of the hybrid approachreciprocal idea generatorsreciprocal validation of the results |
| spellingShingle | Elisabetta Palagi Thore J. Bergman Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> Animals cognitive ethology strength/weakness of captive and wild approaches experimental and ecological validity of the hybrid approach reciprocal idea generators reciprocal validation of the results |
| title | Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> |
| title_full | Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> |
| title_fullStr | Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> |
| title_short | Bridging Captive and Wild Studies: Behavioral Plasticity and Social Complexity in <i>Theropithecus gelada</i> |
| title_sort | bridging captive and wild studies behavioral plasticity and social complexity in i theropithecus gelada i |
| topic | cognitive ethology strength/weakness of captive and wild approaches experimental and ecological validity of the hybrid approach reciprocal idea generators reciprocal validation of the results |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/10/3003 |
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