Orangutans have larger gestural repertoires in captivity than in the wild—A case of weak innovation?

Fröhlich, Marlen; Bartolotta, Natasha; Fryns, Caroline; Wagner, Clothilde; Momon, Laurene; Jaffrezic, Marvin; Setia, Tatang Mitra; Schuppli, Caroline; Noordwijk, Maria A. van; Schaik, Carel P. van

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103304

Cited by 11 publications

(45 citation statements)

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“…Therefore, the extent to which the differences we found here are due to mothers' personalities or those of their infants remains not entirely clear and can only be solved by collecting data on several consecutive infants; this would be an insightful albeit challenging task, given the slow life history characterizing the great apes, in particular orang-utans [29,58]. Another caveat of this study is that it did not include vocalizations, due to several methodological constraints, discussed in [27], hampering comparability between research settings. Although probably less relevant for maternal communication (great ape mothers only seldom vocalize in response to their infant's vocalizations [2]), a study on stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) showed that individual differences in maternal responsiveness to infant calls were related to variation in the tendency for infants to leave the mother [59].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Captive Bornean orang-utans were observed at the zoos of Cologne and Munster, and at Apenheul (Apeldoorn), while Sumatran orang-utans were observed at the zoo of Zurich and at Hellabrunn (Munich). Details on these study sites and data collection have been provided in previous writings [26,27]. In this study, 13 Bornean (9 wild/4 captive) and 13 Sumatran orang-utan mothers were included (8 wild/5 captive; see electronic supplementary material, table S1 for detailed information on subjects and sample sizes per analysis).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…elaborations; see electronic supplementary material, table S2 for all original levels of these three coding variables). We also coded the ‘ presumed goal’ as the social context (co-locomote, food share, groom, play/affiliate, move away, sexual contact and stop action [26,27,31]) and the interaction outcome (i.e. whether the signaller ceased communication and if it represented the signaller's plausible social goal; [36]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To assess between-individual variation in gestural repertoire and compare repertoire similarity within and between research settings, we calculated Dice coefficients D C [41] for each pairing of individuals (see electronic supplementary material, methods; [27,33]). We conducted matrix permutations ( N = 1000 permutations) in R v. 4.0.3 [42] to assess whether (i) mothers of the same settings (wild-wild and captive-captive pairings) shared more types of signals than mothers living in contrasting settings (wild-captive pairings) and (ii) mothers living in captive settings had more dissimilar repertoires than individuals in wild settings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We predicted this contrast because we included more different captive than wild study groups per species (two or three zoos versus one field site), but also because social life in captivity is more terrestrial (i.e. freeing hands for communication) and more diverse in terms of every-day partner variety (see also [27]). We only included subjects that contributed more than 30 gestural instances to the dataset (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual variation and plasticity in the infant-directed communication of orang-utan mothers

et al. 2022

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Between-individual variation in behavioural expression, such as social responsiveness, has been shown to have important eco-evolutionary consequences. However, most comparative research on non-human primate communication has focused on species- or population-level variation, while among- and within-individual variation has been largely ignored or considered as noise. Here, we apply a behavioural reaction norm framework to repeated observations of mother–offspring interactions in wild and zoo-housed orang-utans ( Pongo abelii, P. pygmaeus ) to tease apart variation on the individual level from population-level and species-level differences. Our results showed that mothers not only differed in the composition of their infant-directed gestural repertoires, but also in communicative tactics, such as gestural redoings (i.e. persistence) and responsiveness to infants' requests. These differences remained after controlling for essential moderators, including species, setting, parity and infant age. Importantly, mothers differed in how they adjusted their behaviour across social contexts, making a strong case for investigating within-individual variation. Our findings highlight that partitioning behavioural variation into its within-individual, between-individual and environmental sources allows us to estimate the extent of plastic responses to the immediate environment in great ape communication.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual variation and plasticity in the infant-directed communication of orang-utan mothers

et al. 2022

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What we know and don't know about great ape cultural communication in the wild

Kalan,

Nakano,

Warshawski

2023

American J Primatol

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Following the first descriptions of culture in primates, widespread agreement has developed that the term can be applied to nonhumans as group‐specific, socially learned behaviors. While behaviors such as those involving extractive tool use have been researched intensively, we propose that behaviors that are more subtle, less likely to be ecologically constrained, and more likely to be socially shaped, such as cultural forms of communication, provide compelling evidence of culture in nonhuman primates. Additionally, cultural forms of communication can provide novel insights into animal cognition such as the capacity for conformity, conventionalized meanings, arbitrariness in signal forms, and even symbolism. In this paper we focus on evidence from studies conducted on wild great apes. First, we provide a thorough review of what exactly we do know, and by extension don't know, about great ape cultural communication. We argue that detailed research on both vocal and gestural communication in wild great apes shows a more nuanced and variable repertoire than once assumed, with increasing support for group‐specific variation. Second, we discuss the relevance of great ape cultural communication and its potential for illustrating evolutionary continuity for human‐like cultural attributes, namely cumulative culture and symbolism. In sum, a concerted effort to examine cultural forms of communication in great apes could reveal novel evidence for cultural capacities that have thus far been heavily debated in the literature and can simultaneously contribute to an improved understanding of the complex minds of our closest living relatives.

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Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

Fröhlich,

van Noordwijk,

Mitra Setia

et al. 2024

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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In many group-living species, individuals are required to flexibly modify their communicative behaviour in response to current social challenges. To unravel whether sociality and communication systems co-evolve, research efforts have often targeted the links between social organisation and communicative repertoires. However, it is still unclear which social or interactional factors directly predict communicative complexity. To address this issue, we studied wild and zoo-housed immature orangutans of two species to assess the impact of the socio-ecological setting on the production of non-vocal signal repertoires. Specifically, we compared repertoire size, dyadic repertoire similarity, and number of social goals (i.e. observer’s estimate of the signaller’s intended interaction outcome) for communicative interactions with mothers versus other conspecifics, controlling for critical individual and environmental factors. In this small sample of immature orangutans, wild-captive contrasts were statistically significant only for other-directed repertoires, but not for mother-directed repertoires, and not for the number of social goals that immatures communicated towards. While the repertoires of individuals living in the same research setting were more similar than those living in contrasting settings, this difference was most pronounced for other-directed repertoires of the less socially tolerant orangutan species. These results suggest that the boosted interactional opportunities in captivity rather than mere differences in environmental affordances or communicative needs drive the wild-captive contrast in orangutan communicative repertoires. Overall, this fine-grained analysis of repertoires further underscores that not only a species’ social organisation but also the targeted audience may have a profound impact on communicative behaviour. Significance statement Navigating a dynamic social environment often requires flexible signal use. While it has repeatedly been shown that the social organisation and structure of species predict the complexity of their communication systems, the mechanisms underlying these relationships are largely unknown. Because targeted studies to assess this issue in great apes are difficult, we take an alternative approach here: we compare the same species living in the wild and in artificial habitats in captivity. This contrast allows a direct test of how repertoires respond to the relevant difference in socio-ecological conditions. Our results show that the diversity of interaction partners (i.e. social opportunities), but not the diversity of social goals (i.e. possible interaction outcomes) or the broader physical opportunities (i.e. safe ground use), predict the size and consistency of wild and captive signalling repertoires.

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Orangutans have larger gestural repertoires in captivity than in the wild—A case of weak innovation?

Cited by 11 publications

References 67 publications

Individual variation and plasticity in the infant-directed communication of orang-utan mothers

Individual variation and plasticity in the infant-directed communication of orang-utan mothers

What we know and don't know about great ape cultural communication in the wild

Wild and captive immature orangutans differ in their non-vocal communication with others, but not with their mothers

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