Cultural change in animals: a flexible behavioural adaptation to human disturbance

Abstract

In recent decades, researchers have increasingly documented the impact of anthropogenic activities on wild animals, particularly in relation to changes in behaviour. However, whether human-induced behavioural changes in wildlife may be considered evidence of cultural evolution remains an open question. We explored whether behavioural responses to different types of human activities in species already known to display behaviour transmitted through social learning, particularly non-human primates (NHPs), are suggestive of cultural evolution in the wild. Results indicate that human influence on NHP cultural repertoires includes the modification and disappearance of existing cultural traits, as well as the invention of novel traditions with the potential to become cultural. These examples are found mostly in the domain of food acquisition, where animals modify their diet to include new resources, and adopt novel foraging strategies to avoid humans. In summary, this paper suggests that human activities can act as a catalyst for cultural change in animals, both in terms of threatening existing traditions and fostering new ones. The current situation may echo environmental changes thought to have triggered major behavioural adaptations in our own evolutionary history and thus be useful for research on human cultural evolution. As wildlife is increasingly exposed to humans and their activities, understanding how animal behaviour patterns and cultures are impacted and change in response to anthropogenic factors is of growing conservation importance.

Innovation in chimpanzees

“…Chimpanzees have also demonstrated a remarkable ability to respond to novel ecological situations (e.g. Hobaiter et al ., 2014; Gruber et al ., 2019), which may allow them to adapt to their changing environment. However, while some forms of human impact may provide novel opportunities to chimpanzees (for example, the availability of human‐cultivated foods; Takahata et al ., 1986), these opportunities may at the same time bring chimpanzees into contact and conflict with human communities (McLennan & Hill, 2012).…”

“…This is particularly pertinent to chimpanzees, given the continued impact of human activities upon great ape habitats, with less than 10% of African great ape habitat expected to be undisturbed by human activity by 2030 (Nelleman & Newton, 2002). An understanding of innovation is therefore timely for a wide range of fields of study [see also Kühl et al ., 2019; Gruber et al ., 2019].…”

The role of habitat configuration in shaping animal population processes: a framework to generate quantitative predictions

“…Furthermore, altered habitat physical configurations imply potential changes to the transmission dynamics of pathogens across populations (Green et al, 2006;Riley, 2007;Keeling et al, 2010;Silk et al, 2019). Our simulations show that, as animal social networks, animal habitat network structures play an important role in shaping pathogen transmission, thus highlight a fundamental link between the physical habitat environments and emergent biological processes, such as the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation (Stilwell et al, 2020) and animal culture (Somveille et al, 2018;Gruber et al, 2019).…”

The macronutrient composition of wild and cultivated plant foods of West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) inhabiting an anthropogenic landscape

“…Therefore, the decision to exploit specific crop varieties is likely driven by multiple behavioral and ecological factors such as the degree to which crops are integral to the diet, the relative abundance and nutritional quality of available wild and cultivated foods, in addition to the perceived risks involved in acquiring specific crops, and the cultural differences in the dietary repertoire of chimpanzee communities (McLennan & Hockings, 2014). Notably, the similarities in crop species availability and nutritional composition between Bossou and Bulindi raise the possibility that human‐induced changes drive cultural adaptations in food selection and feeding behaviors in chimpanzee populations residing in anthropogenic environments (Gruber, Luncz, Morchen, Schuppli, & Kendal, 2019).…”