Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use

Ecology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study...

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Huvudupphovsmän: Almeida-Warren, K, Camara, HD, Matsuzawa, T, Carvalho, S
Materialtyp: Journal article
Språk:English
Publicerad: Springer 2022
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author Almeida-Warren, K
Camara, HD
Matsuzawa, T
Carvalho, S
author_facet Almeida-Warren, K
Camara, HD
Matsuzawa, T
Carvalho, S
author_sort Almeida-Warren, K
collection OXFORD
description Ecology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study of the ecological contexts of wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) tool use, we investigated the conditions required for nut-cracking to occur and persist in discrete locations at the long-term field site of Bossou, Guinea. We examined this at three levels: selection, frequency of use, and inactivity. We collected data on plant foods, nut trees, and raw materials using transect and quadrat methods, and conducted forest-wide surveys to map the location of nests and watercourses. We analysed data at the quadrat level (n = 82) using generalised linear models and descriptive statistics. We found that, further to the presence of a nut tree and availability of raw materials, abundance of food-providing trees as well as proximity to nest sites were significant predictors of nut-cracking occurrence. This suggests that the spatial distribution of nut-cracking sites is mediated by the broader behavioural landscape and is influenced by non-extractive foraging of perennial resources and non-foraging activities. Additionally, the number of functional tools was greater at sites with higher nut-cracking frequency, and was negatively correlated with site inactivity. Our research indicates that the technological landscape of Bossou chimpanzees shares affinities with the ‘favoured places’ model of hominin site formation, providing a comparative framework for reconstructing landscape-scale patterns of ancient human behaviour. A French translation of this abstract is provided in theelectronic supplementary information: EMS 2.
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spelling oxford-uuid:0c73e0b2-2c68-4738-8089-a182988232022022-10-12T10:10:04ZLandscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool useJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0c73e0b2-2c68-4738-8089-a18298823202EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer2022Almeida-Warren, KCamara, HDMatsuzawa, TCarvalho, SEcology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study of the ecological contexts of wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) tool use, we investigated the conditions required for nut-cracking to occur and persist in discrete locations at the long-term field site of Bossou, Guinea. We examined this at three levels: selection, frequency of use, and inactivity. We collected data on plant foods, nut trees, and raw materials using transect and quadrat methods, and conducted forest-wide surveys to map the location of nests and watercourses. We analysed data at the quadrat level (n = 82) using generalised linear models and descriptive statistics. We found that, further to the presence of a nut tree and availability of raw materials, abundance of food-providing trees as well as proximity to nest sites were significant predictors of nut-cracking occurrence. This suggests that the spatial distribution of nut-cracking sites is mediated by the broader behavioural landscape and is influenced by non-extractive foraging of perennial resources and non-foraging activities. Additionally, the number of functional tools was greater at sites with higher nut-cracking frequency, and was negatively correlated with site inactivity. Our research indicates that the technological landscape of Bossou chimpanzees shares affinities with the ‘favoured places’ model of hominin site formation, providing a comparative framework for reconstructing landscape-scale patterns of ancient human behaviour. A French translation of this abstract is provided in theelectronic supplementary information: EMS 2.
spellingShingle Almeida-Warren, K
Camara, HD
Matsuzawa, T
Carvalho, S
Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title_full Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title_fullStr Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title_full_unstemmed Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title_short Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
title_sort landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use
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AT camarahd landscapingthebehaviouralecologyofprimatestonetooluse
AT matsuzawat landscapingthebehaviouralecologyofprimatestonetooluse
AT carvalhos landscapingthebehaviouralecologyofprimatestonetooluse