Evidence for social learning in wild lemurs (Lemur catta).
Interest in social learning has been fueled by claims of culture in wild animals. These remain controversial because alternative explanations to social learning, such as asocial learning or ecological differences, remain difficult to refute. Compared with laboratory-based research, the study of social learning in natural contexts is in its infancy. Here, for the first time, we apply two new statistical methods, option-bias analysis and network-based diffusion analysis, to data from the wild, complemented by standard inferential statistics. Contrary to common thought regarding the cognitive abilities of prosimian primates, our evidence is consistent with social learning within subgroups in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), supporting the theory of directed social learning (Coussi-Korbel & Fragaszy, 1995). We also caution that, as the toolbox for capturing social learning in natural contexts grows, care is required in ensuring that the methods employed are appropriate-in particular, regarding social dynamics among study subjects. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://lb.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
Kendal
Rachel L
RL
Durham University, Durham, England. rachel.kendal@durham.ac.uk
Custance
Deborah M
DM
Kendal
Jeremy R
JR
Vale
Gillian
G
Stoinski
Tara S
TS
Rakotomalala
Nirina Lalaina
NL
Rasamimanana
Hantanirina
H
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007858:Learning; D007900:Lemur / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011340:Problem Solving; D012107:Research Design; D012931:Social Environment; D053001:Tool Use Behavior