Teichroeb Julie A, Vining Alexander Q
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.
Animal Behavior Graduate Group, University of California Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA, 95616-8522, USA.
Anim Cogn. 2019 May;22(3):343-354. doi: 10.1007/s10071-019-01247-4. Epub 2019 Feb 13.
Humans generally solve multi-destination routes with simple rules-of-thumb. Animals may do the same, but strong evidence is limited to a few species. We examined whether strepsirrhines, who diverged from haplorhines more than 58 mya, would demonstrate the use of three heuristics used by humans and supported in vervets, the nearest neighbor rule, the convex hull, and a cluster strategy, when solving a multi-destination route. We hypothesized that the evolution of these strategies may depend on a species' dietary specialization. Three nocturnal lemur species were tested on an experimental array at the Duke Lemur Center. Frugivorous fat-tailed dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus medius) were expected to follow paths most consistent with distance-saving navigational heuristics because fruit trees are stationary targets. Gray mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) and aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis), which rely on more mobile and ephemeral foods, were expected to use fewer paths consistent with these heuristics and be more exploratory. Our data supported all of these hypotheses. Dwarf lemurs used paths consistent with all three heuristics, took the shortest paths, and were the least exploratory. Mouse lemurs were quite exploratory but sometimes used paths consistent with heuristics. Aye-ayes showed no evidence of heuristic use and were the most exploratory. Distinguishable patterns of inter- and intra-individual variation in ability to solve the route, speed, and behavior occurred in each species. This research suggests that these simple navigational heuristics are not part of a readily available set of cognitive tools inherited by all primates but instead evolve due to need in each lineage.
人类通常用简单的经验法则来解决多目的地路线问题。动物可能也会如此，但有力证据仅限于少数物种。我们研究了在5800多万年前与类人猿分化的原猴亚目动物，在解决多目的地路线问题时，是否会表现出人类所使用并在绿猴中得到支持的三种启发式方法的运用，即最近邻规则、凸包法和聚类策略。我们假设这些策略的进化可能取决于一个物种的饮食特化。在杜克狐猴中心的一个实验阵列上对三种夜行狐猴物种进行了测试。以水果为食的肥尾侏儒狐猴（Cheirogaleus medius）预计会遵循与节省距离的导航启发式方法最一致的路径，因为果树是固定目标。依赖更多移动性和临时性食物的灰鼠狐猴（Microcebus murinus）和指猴（Daubentonia madagascariensis）预计会较少使用与这些启发式方法一致的路径，并且更具探索性。我们的数据支持了所有这些假设。侏儒狐猴使用的路径与所有三种启发式方法一致，走的是最短路径，并且探索性最小。鼠狐猴非常具有探索性，但有时也会使用与启发式方法一致的路径。指猴没有表现出使用启发式方法的迹象，并且探索性最强。每个物种在解决路线问题的能力、速度和行为方面都出现了个体间和个体内的明显差异模式。这项研究表明，这些简单的导航启发式方法并非所有灵长类动物都继承的一套现成认知工具的一部分，而是因每个谱系的需求而进化。
