The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou
<p>To unpack the complexities of primate behaviour, it is essential to study individuals over the course of their lifetime. Long-term field studies of wild primates are enabling key evolutionary questions to be addressed for the first time. Critical among these are ontogenetic questions, espec...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1817930615967711232 |
|---|---|
| author | Berdugo, SR |
| author2 | Hathaway, E |
| author_facet | Hathaway, E Berdugo, SR |
| author_sort | Berdugo, SR |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>To unpack the complexities of primate behaviour, it is essential to study individuals over the course of their lifetime. Long-term field studies of wild primates are enabling key evolutionary questions to be addressed for the first time. Critical among these are ontogenetic questions, especially those pertaining to complex traits with prolonged learning periods (such as using stone tools) given the potential for variation between individuals to develop. Such individual differences, whether in the efficiency of producing the behaviour or in the learning process itself, can have far reaching repercussions, including for life history adaptations, cultural and technological evolution, and the fitness of individuals and populations. Answers to these ontogenetic questions can also provide an insight into the social and cognitive processes that supported the acquisition of early lithic technologies in the hominin lineage.</p>
<p>This thesis centres on the ontogeny of technology in the wild chimpanzee population in Bossou, Guinea. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief context for the research and present the research questions and aims. In Chapters 2 and 3, I review the theoretical and empirical literature forming the basis of the research in this thesis. In Chapter 4, I introduce the Bossou field site and chimpanzees, and outline the methods employed to systematically collect data from a long-term video archive. In Chapter 5, I show that the individual Bossou chimpanzees vary in their technological efficiency, and present four measures which are stable and reliable indicators of individual differences in nut-cracking efficiency. In Chapter 6, I demonstrate the developmental origins of this individual variation. In Chapter 7, I present evidence of social learning strategies being employed by the wild chimpanzees when learning from individuals other than their mother, specifically an increased likelihood of non-kin models being peered at even when kin are available. In Chapter 8, I discuss the contributions of these findings, as well as the limitations and directions for future research.</p>
<p>By establishing the presence, and tracking the development, of individual variation in stone tool efficiency in the wild chimpanzees over a 25-year period, this research makes substantial methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to the fields of primate behaviour, learning, and conservation. Overall, this thesis provides a critical longitudinal perspective to ongoing debates and open questions in primatology and cognitive and evolutionary anthropology.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:08:57Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:0e444901-26ea-40c4-aa8b-4d26f79c9ee8 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:08:57Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:0e444901-26ea-40c4-aa8b-4d26f79c9ee82024-10-02T09:44:23ZThe ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in BossouThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:0e444901-26ea-40c4-aa8b-4d26f79c9ee8Animal cultureAnimal behaviorChimpanzeesSocial learningPrimatologyBehavior evolutionPsychology, ComparativeEnglishHyrax Deposit2024Berdugo, SRHathaway, ERibeiro Marques de Carvalho, SBiro, DKoops, K<p>To unpack the complexities of primate behaviour, it is essential to study individuals over the course of their lifetime. Long-term field studies of wild primates are enabling key evolutionary questions to be addressed for the first time. Critical among these are ontogenetic questions, especially those pertaining to complex traits with prolonged learning periods (such as using stone tools) given the potential for variation between individuals to develop. Such individual differences, whether in the efficiency of producing the behaviour or in the learning process itself, can have far reaching repercussions, including for life history adaptations, cultural and technological evolution, and the fitness of individuals and populations. Answers to these ontogenetic questions can also provide an insight into the social and cognitive processes that supported the acquisition of early lithic technologies in the hominin lineage.</p> <p>This thesis centres on the ontogeny of technology in the wild chimpanzee population in Bossou, Guinea. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief context for the research and present the research questions and aims. In Chapters 2 and 3, I review the theoretical and empirical literature forming the basis of the research in this thesis. In Chapter 4, I introduce the Bossou field site and chimpanzees, and outline the methods employed to systematically collect data from a long-term video archive. In Chapter 5, I show that the individual Bossou chimpanzees vary in their technological efficiency, and present four measures which are stable and reliable indicators of individual differences in nut-cracking efficiency. In Chapter 6, I demonstrate the developmental origins of this individual variation. In Chapter 7, I present evidence of social learning strategies being employed by the wild chimpanzees when learning from individuals other than their mother, specifically an increased likelihood of non-kin models being peered at even when kin are available. In Chapter 8, I discuss the contributions of these findings, as well as the limitations and directions for future research.</p> <p>By establishing the presence, and tracking the development, of individual variation in stone tool efficiency in the wild chimpanzees over a 25-year period, this research makes substantial methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to the fields of primate behaviour, learning, and conservation. Overall, this thesis provides a critical longitudinal perspective to ongoing debates and open questions in primatology and cognitive and evolutionary anthropology.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Animal culture Animal behavior Chimpanzees Social learning Primatology Behavior evolution Psychology, Comparative Berdugo, SR The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title | The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title_full | The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title_fullStr | The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title_short | The ontogeny of chimpanzee technology: a longitudinal study of stone tool use in Bossou |
| title_sort | ontogeny of chimpanzee technology a longitudinal study of stone tool use in bossou |
| topic | Animal culture Animal behavior Chimpanzees Social learning Primatology Behavior evolution Psychology, Comparative |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT berdugosr theontogenyofchimpanzeetechnologyalongitudinalstudyofstonetooluseinbossou AT berdugosr ontogenyofchimpanzeetechnologyalongitudinalstudyofstonetooluseinbossou |