Begging and social tolerance: Food solicitation tactics in young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the wild

Fröhlich, Marlen; Müller, Gudrun; Zeiträg, Claudia; Wittig, Roman M.; Pika, Simone

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.11.002

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…The profound difference between mother-offspring and other interactions is arguably due to the high trust the signaller can have that the recipient is socially tolerant. This finding corroborates previous work on wild chimpanzees, demonstrating that purely visual, non-contact communication is more prevalent in interactions with less socially tolerant conspecifics 45 , 46 . As to the island difference, although orang-utans generally have fewer opportunities for social interactions than the African apes outside the mother-offspring bond (but see ref.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Third, the pairing of social partners (interaction dyad) also affects features of social interactions regardless of captive-wild and Bornean-Sumatran contrasts, e.g. due to differences in social tolerance and familiarity 45 , 46 . Although mothers are the most important communication partner of infant orang-utans 10 , 47 , 48 , temporary associations during feeding or travelling occur, particularly if food is abundant 49 , 50 , thus providing opportunities for social interactions beyond the mother–infant unit 51 – 53 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multicomponent and multisensory communicative acts in orang-utans may serve different functions

et al. 2021

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From early infancy, human face-to-face communication is multimodal, comprising a plethora of interlinked communicative and sensory modalities. Although there is also growing evidence for this in nonhuman primates, previous research rarely disentangled production from perception of signals. Consequently, the functions of integrating articulators (i.e. production organs involved in multicomponent acts) and sensory channels (i.e. modalities involved in multisensory acts) remain poorly understood. Here, we studied close-range social interactions within and beyond mother-infant pairs of Bornean and Sumatran orang-utans living in wild and captive settings, to examine use of and responses to multicomponent and multisensory communication. From the perspective of production, results showed that multicomponent acts were used more than the respective unicomponent acts when the presumed goal did not match the dominant outcome for a specific communicative act, and were more common among non-mother-infant dyads and Sumatran orang-utans. From the perception perspective, we found that multisensory acts were more effective than the respective unisensory acts, and were used more in wild compared to captive populations. We argue that multisensory acts primarily facilitate effectiveness, whereas multicomponent acts become relevant when interaction outcomes are less predictable. These different functions underscore the importance of distinguishing between production and perception in studies of communication.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multicomponent and multisensory communicative acts in orang-utans may serve different functions

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The profound difference between mother-offspring and other interactions is arguably due to the high trust the signaller can have that the recipient is socially tolerant. This nding corroborates previous work on wild chimpanzees, demonstrating that purely visual, non-contact communication may be more relevant in interactions with less socially tolerant conspeci cs 30,31 . Although orang-utans tend to have fewer opportunities for social interactions than the African apes outside the mother-offspring bond (but see 62 showing overlap in 'solitariness' between eastern chimpanzee females and North-West-Sumatran orang-utans), they do occur regularly.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Third, the pairing of social partners (interaction dyad) also affects features of social interactions irrespective of captive-wild and Bornean-Sumatran contrasts, e.g. due to differences in social tolerance and familiarity 30,31 . Although mothers are the most important communication partner of infant orang-utans 10,32,33 , temporary associations during feeding or travelling occur, particularly if food is abundant 34,35 , thus providing opportunities for social interactions beyond the mother-infant unit [36][37][38] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use and Function of Multi-Articulator Versus Multi-Sensory Acts in the Close-Range Communication of Orang-Utans

Fröhlich

Bartolotta

Fryns

et al. 2020

Preprint

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From early infancy, human face-to-face communication is “multimodal”, comprising a plethora of interlinked articulators and sensory modalities. Although there is also growing evidence for this in nonhuman primates, the functions of integrating articulators (i.e. multiplex or multi-articulator acts) and channels (i.e. multimodal or multi-sensory acts) remain poorly understood. Here, we studied close-range social interactions within and beyond mother-infant pairs of Bornean and Sumatran orang-utans living in wild and captive settings, to examine to what extent species, setting and recipient-dependent factors affected the use of and responses to multi-sensory as well as multi-articulator communication. Results showed that both multi-sensory and multi-articulatory acts were more effective at eliciting responses (i.e. “apparently satisfactory outcomes”) than their respective uni-component parts, and generally played a larger role in wild populations. However, only multi-articulator acts were used more when the presumed goal did not match the dominant outcome for a specific communicative act, and were more common among non-mother-infant dyads and Sumatrans across settings. We suggest that communication through multiple sensory channels primarily facilitates effectiveness, whereas a flexible combination of articulators is relevant when social tolerance and interaction outcomes are less predictable. These different functions underscore the importance of distinguishing between these forms of multi-component communication.

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“…Medium-high arousal states of negative valence might include contexts such as food or object begging, as the signaler is attempting to acquire a resource (Fröhlich, Müller, Zeiträg, Wittig, & Pika, 2020;Leavens et al, 2005), or sexual solicitation in courtship scenarios (Graham et al, 2018;Hobaiter & Byrne, 2012). We note, however, that valence for food begging is difficult to determine without physiological data, but because it is often accompanied by other emotion expressions indicating negative arousal (e.g., bared-teeth), it might best be defined as negative/tense context.…”

Section: Gestural Communication (Figure 1 C)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate communication: Affective, intentional, or both?

Heesen¹,

Sievers²,

Gruber³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The intentional communication of affective states is a central part of human sociality and cognition. Although nonhuman primates (henceforth primates) also signal intentionally, there is a perceived chasm between their intentional versus affective forms of communication. Whereas primate vocalizations and facial expressions are traditionally viewed as involuntary 'read-outs' of affective states, gestures are considered as products of intentional control. However, this traditional view is increasingly contentious, given recent evidence of intentional signal production of primate vocalizations and facial expressions, as well as the general void of arousal-based explanations in gesture research. In this chapter, we challenge the perceived dichotomy between affective and intentional communication in primates and propose a dimensional approach, whereby primate signals can be both affective and intentional, regardless of signal modality (tactile, audible, visible) or component (gesture, facial expression, vocalization). We argue that a dimensional approach, which incorporates both affective and intentional components, would improve our knowledge on how affective and cognitive processes have jointly shaped the evolution of primate communication.

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Begging and social tolerance: Food solicitation tactics in young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the wild

Cited by 15 publications

References 85 publications

Multicomponent and multisensory communicative acts in orang-utans may serve different functions

Multicomponent and multisensory communicative acts in orang-utans may serve different functions

Use and Function of Multi-Articulator Versus Multi-Sensory Acts in the Close-Range Communication of Orang-Utans

Primate communication: Affective, intentional, or both?

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