Social traditions and social learning in capuchin monkeys (Cebus)

Abstract

Capuchin monkeys (genus Cebus) have evolutionarily converged with humans and chimpanzees in a number of ways, including large brain size, omnivory and extractive foraging, extensive cooperation and coalitionary behaviour and a reliance on social learning. Recent research has documented a richer repertoire of group-specific social conventions in the coalition-prone Cebus capucinus than in any other non-human primate species; these social rituals appear designed to test the strength of social bonds. Such diverse social conventions have not yet been noted in Cebus apella, despite extensive observation at multiple sites. The more robust and widely distributed C. apella is notable for the diversity of its tool-use repertoire, particularly in marginal habitats. Although C. capucinus does not often use tools, white-faced capuchins do specialize in foods requiring multi-step processing, and there are often multiple techniques used by different individuals within the same social group. Immatures preferentially observe foragers who are eating rare foods and hard-to-process foods. Young foragers, especially females, tend to adopt the same foraging techniques as their close associates.

The evolution of primate general and cultural intelligence

“…Nonetheless, we note a correspondence between those primates with high g S1 scores and those renowned for complex cognition and rich behaviour (e.g. Pan, Pongo, Cebus, Macaca [3,13,27,[46][47][48], figure 1c). Moreover, to address the concern that the data for little-studied species may be unreliable, we repeated the phylogenetic reconstruction with the less well-studied species removed, finding similar results (electronic supplementary material).…”

Constraints and flexibility in mammalian social behaviour: introduction and synthesis

“…White-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus), rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans R Soc B 368: 20120337 for example, exhibit a rich repertoire of group-specific social conventions that appear to serve solely to test social bonds [71]. Across mammals, there is similar group-specific variation in specialized foraging techniques [72,73], tool use [74,75] and communication signals [76,77].…”

Culture evolves

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7]) as well as elsewhere [36]. However, over-reliance on what others in one's community do carries the danger of maladaptive behaviour when environments change, a point powerfully made in the influential cultural modelling work of Boyd & Richerson [19,69].…”

“…We have instead invited contributions that emphasize what we see as two major classes of discovery in this area of research: first, that social learning and traditions exist widely across the animal kingdom, and second, that their significance pervades many-indeed arguably mostdimensions of some animals' lives. The first of these points is illustrated by papers reviewing recent findings spanning fish, birds, primates and other mammals [2][3][4][5][6][7], and the second by reference to the extensive range of phenomena incorporated into traditions described here, including foraging techniques, tool use, food types and sites, travel routes, predator recognition, social customs and mate choice.…”

“…Articles in several parts of this issue (e.g. [2,5,6,25,37,50,51]) describe experimental evidence that rules such as 'conform to the majority behaviour', 'copy the most successful individual' and 'learn from familiar individuals' are used by a range of distantly related animals, as well as humans, although differing underlying processes may be involved.…”