Mental maps in chacma baboons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Papio ursinus</Emphasis>): using inter-group encounters as a natural experiment |
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Authors: | Rahel Noser Richard W Byrne |
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Institution: | (1) Scottish Primate Research Group and Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, The University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, Scotland, UK;(2) Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | Encounters between groups of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) can be viewed as a natural experiment to investigate the nature of these primates’ mental representations of large-scale
space. During a 16-month field study in a high population density habitat we recorded the foraging routes and the most important
resources of a group of 25 individuals. Also, we estimated the locations of additional baboon groups relative to the study
group. Routes were less linear, travel speed was higher, and inter-resource distances were larger when other groups were present
within 500 m of the focal group; thus, the study group avoided others by taking detours. We predicted that evasive manoeuvres
would be characteristic of different possible orientation mechanisms, and compared them with our observations. We analysed
34 evasive manoeuvres in detail. In an area that lacked prominent landmarks, detours were small; larger detours occurred when
resources were directly visible, or in the vicinity of a hill offering conspicuous landmarks. In areas without prominent landmarks,
detours were along familiar routes and waiting bouts of up to 60 min occurred; on one occasion the study group aborted their
entire day’s journey. We discuss these findings in the light of time and energy costs and suggest that the baboons lack the
ability to compute Euclidean relations among locations, but use network maps to find their way to out-of-sight locations.
This contribution is part of the Special Issue “A Socioecological Perspective on Primate Cognition” (Cunningham and Janson
2007a). |
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Keywords: | Cognitive map Baboons Spatial knowledge Inter-group encounters |
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