How technology can advance the study of animal cognition in the wild

Griebling, Hannah J; Sluka, Christina M.; Stanton, Lauren A; Barrett, Lisa P.; Bastos, Jaylen B; Benson‐Amram, Sarah

doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101120

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Technological advances can aid in the study of learning by enabling individual identification, which is essential for examining repeated attempts by the same individual. Griebling and colleagues (2022) present RFID tags and machine-learning-assisted identification as candidate technologies for this challenge. Replicating the experiments in an urban context could inform us about the effect of exposure to humans on learning, where raccoons are often part of conflicts ( Gehrt 2004 ; Curtis and Hadidian 2010 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning

Lazure,

Weladji

2024

Behavioral Ecology

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Cognition helps wildlife exploit novel resources and environments. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) have successfully adapted to human presence, in part due to their cognitive abilities. However, interactions between humans and wildlife can create conflict. A better understanding of the raccoon’s behavioral flexibility and learning ability could mitigate some conflicts. Our objective was to evaluate wild raccoons learning in contexts varying in terms of exposure to humans (recreational and preservation zoning within protected areas) and task difficulty. Learning can be evaluated over multiple exposures to a cognitive task. Across three years of experiment, we employed two food extraction tasks to gauge the change in problem-solving performance over trials. This assessment considered the success probability (the number of successful trials divided by the total number of trials) and the time taken to solve the puzzles. We also looked at the effects of two behavioral traits, exploratory diversity and persistence. We found strong evidence for learning over consecutive trials in terms of improved success probability. Improvement in terms of success probability and solving time was more pronounced with the initially easier task. We detected an increase in success probability over trials only in the recreation zones, and there was no evidence for an effect of behavioral traits. The improved performance attributed to learning was also maintained over consecutive years. We provide additional evidence that raccoons can learn how to solve a problem, resulting in a more effective solution in consecutive trials. Finally, we consider the management implications of dealing with raccoons accessing anthropogenic resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning

Lazure,

Weladji

2024

Behavioral Ecology

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“…This kind of observational data can also be linked to detailed information on individual's heath status. Finally, these sites could further allow integration of observational, cognitive, and physiological data with monitoring from new technologies that are currently being applied to wild animals, such as trap cameras or other forms of remote sensing to understand individual and group‐level behaviors (Griebling et al, 2022; Harrison & van de Waal, 2022). This would allow for integration of across data, as well as enable tests of these technologies in more controlled situations to inform their use in the wild.…”

Section: Comparison and Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Observational approaches to chimpanzee behavior in an African sanctuary: Implications for research, welfare, and capacity‐building

Rosati,

Sabbi,

Bryer

et al. 2023

American J Primatol

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Research in African ape sanctuaries has emerged as an important context for our understanding of comparative cognition and behavior. While much of this work has focused on experimental studies of cognition, these animals semi‐free‐range in forest habitats and therefore can also provide important information about the behavior of primates in socioecologically‐relevant naturalistic contexts. In this “New Approaches” article, we describe a project where we implemented a synthetic program of observational data collection at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, directly modeled after long‐term data collection protocols at the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda, a wild chimpanzee field site. The foundation for this project was a strong partnership between sanctuary staff, field site staff, and external researchers. We describe how we developed a data‐collection protocol through discussion and collaboration among these groups, and trained sanctuary caregivers to collect novel observational data using these protocols. We use these data as a case study to examine: (1) how behavioral observations in sanctuaries can inform primate welfare and care practices, such as by understanding aggression within the group; (2) how matched observational protocols across sites can inform our understanding of primate behavior across different contexts, including sex differences in social relationships; and (3) how more robust collaborations between foreign researchers and local partners can support capacity‐building in primate range countries, along with mentoring and training students more broadly.

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“…(2) Technology perception. Based on the study of the classification of technology cognition [28][29][30] and the basic characteristics of green production technology, technology cognition was subdivided into technology-economic cognition and technology-environmental cognition. Technical-economic cognition includes convenience cognition, operational effect cognition, and income generation cognition, while technical-environmental cognition includes soil protection cognition, pollution reduction cognition, and ecological protection cognition.…”

Section: Variable Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Endowments, Technology Perception and Green Production Technology Adoption Behavior

Sui

Gao

2023

Sustainability

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The motivation of this paper is to explore the influence of farmers’ endowments and technology perceptions on farmers’ green production technology adoption behaviors. Based on a survey of 471 grain farmers in the main grain-producing areas of Shandong Province, the Heckman model was used to empirically analyze the influence of farmers’ endowments on their adoption behavior of green production technologies, and the moderating effect of technology perception on the relationship between the two was further investigated. The study showed that: (1) More than half of the farmers adopted more than three green production technologies, and only 11.5% did not adopt them. In terms of adoption structure, the adoption rate of green pest control technology was the highest at 67.7%, while the adoption rate of moderate deep pine technology was the lowest at 32.7%. The adoption structure should be further optimized. (2) After controlling for sample selection bias, farmers’ endowments have a significant positive effect on farmers’ green production technology adoption behaviors. The ordinary least square regression overestimates the main effect of farmers’ endowments by 8.5% compared with the Heckman model. (3) Technology cognition can effectively promote the positive effect of farmers’ endowments on green production technology adoption, in which the moderating effect of technology–economic cognition is higher than that of technology–environmental cognition. (4) There is heterogeneity in the effects of farmers’ endowments and technology cognition on different adoption subjects and technology types. The above findings provide an in-depth explanation for activating the endogenous drivers of green agriculture development.

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How technology can advance the study of animal cognition in the wild

Cited by 11 publications

References 74 publications

Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning

Exposure to humans and task difficulty levels affect wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) learning

Observational approaches to chimpanzee behavior in an African sanctuary: Implications for research, welfare, and capacity‐building

Farmers’ Endowments, Technology Perception and Green Production Technology Adoption Behavior

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