Innovation and behavioral flexibility in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons)

Abstract

Innovations and problem-solving abilities can provide animals with important ecological advantages as they allow individuals to deal with novel social and ecological challenges. Innovation is a solution to a novel problem or a novel solution to an old problem, with the latter being especially difficult. Finding a new solution to an old problem requires individuals to inhibit previously applied solutions to invent new strategies and to behave flexibly. We examined the role of experience on cognitive flexibility to innovate and to find new problem-solving solutions with an artificial feeding task in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons). Four groups of lemurs were tested with feeding boxes, each offering three different techniques to extract food, with only one technique being available at a time. After the subjects learned a technique, this solution was no longer successful and subjects had to invent a new technique. For the first transition between task 1 and 2, subjects had to rely on their experience of the previous technique to solve task 2. For the second transition, subjects had to inhibit the previously learned technique to learn the new task 3. Tasks 1 and 2 were solved by most subjects, whereas task 3 was solved by only a few subjects. In this task, besides behavioral flexibility, especially persistence, i.e., constant trying, was important for individual success during innovation. Thus, wild strepsirrhine primates are able to innovate flexibly, suggesting a general ecological relevance of behavioral flexibility and persistence during innovation and problem solving across all primates.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10071-015-0844-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Are generalists more innovative than specialists? A comparison of innovative abilities in two wild sympatric mouse lemur species

“…Yet, as in several other species [5,9,27,71], more persistent mouse lemurs achieved greater performance than less persistent individuals. In these studies, persistence was measured as time spent manipulating [5,71] or as the number of attempts to solve the problem [9,27].…”

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“…In line with previous studies (Morand-Ferron et al, 2011;Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012;Huebner & Fichtel, 2015;Borrego & Gaines, 2016), we found motor diversity to be positively linked to persistence in both tasks, in both dogs and wolves. Motor diversity and behavioural flexibility is important during foraging.…”

“…These include neophobia (the fear of new situations or objects), motor diversity and flexibility (the repertoire of problem-solving behaviours an animal displays, and its ability to find novel solutions to already known problems, or use known solutions to solve novel problems) and, most importantly, persistence (Lefebvre, Reader & Sol, 2004;Biondi, Bó & Vassallo, 2010;Hiestand, 2011;Cole, Cram & Quinn, 2011;Morand-Ferron et al, 2011;Thornton & Samson, 2012;Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012;Griffin & Guez, 2014;Moretti et al, 2015;Griffin & Diquelou, 2015;Huebner & Fichtel, 2015;Udell, 2015;Borrego & Gaines, 2016) (defined as task directed motivation and quantified as the amount of time an animal spends tackling a task). These correlates are interconnected, with behavioural flexibility being positively correlated with persistence (Morand-Ferron et al, 2011;Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012;Griffin & Guez, 2014;Huebner & Fichtel, 2015;Borrego & Gaines, 2016) and both being negatively correlated with neophobia (Bouchard, Goodyer & Lefebvre, 2007;Biondi, Bó & Vassallo, 2010;Thornton & Samson, 2012;Sol, Griffin & Bartomeus, 2012;Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012;Griffin & Guez, 2014;Moretti et al, 2015;Borrego & Gaines, 2016). They are influenced by a species' ecology, social structure and living conditions (Webster & Lefebvre, 2001;Lefebvre, Reader & Sol, 2004;Cauchard et al, 2013;Griffin, Diquelou & Perea, 2014).…”

Supplemental Material for The Interplay of Prior Experience and Motivation in Great Ape Problem-Solving (Gorilla gorilla, Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, and Pongo abelii)

“…Interestingly, the distribution of apes with regard to the number of stones they dropped into the tube in the empty condition was similar for both groups, suggesting that after an initial phase of potential extrinsic motivation at least some apes might have been intrinsically motivated to explore the apparatus further. Persistence is thought to be an essential component of flexible problem-solving (e.g., Benson-Amram & Holekamp, 2012;Chow, Lea, & Leaver, 2016;Huebner & Fichtel, 2015;Manrique, Völter, & Call, 2013). However, persistence alone may be insufficient in some situations unless it appears in combination with the use of different actions (i.e., exploration).…”