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An evaluation of the geographic method for recognizing innovations in nature, using zoo orangutans

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Abstract

Innovation and social learning are the raw materials for traditions and culture. Of these two, innovation has received far less scrutiny, largely because of difficulties assessing the innovation status of behaviors. A recent attempt proposes recognition of innovations in natural populations based on assessment of the behavior’s properties and its geographic and local prevalence. Here we examine the validity of this approach and the list of 43 potential innovations it generated for wild orangutans by extending the comparison to zoo orangutans. First, we created an inventory of the behavioral repertoire in the zoo population. Four of ten putative innovations recognized in the field and potentially present in captivity did not occur despite appropriate conditions, suggesting they are indeed innovations. Second, we experimentally produced relevant conditions to evaluate whether another five potential innovations could be elicited. Based on their continued absence or on their latencies relative to known behaviors, four of the potential innovations could be assessed as innovations and one as a modification. Because 53% of relevant innovations recognized in the field could be confirmed in this analysis, and another 27% assigned possible innovation status, we conclude that the geographic method for detecting innovation in the wild is valid. However, the experiments also yielded up to 13 additional innovations, suggesting that zoo orangutans are far more innovative than wild ones. We discuss the implications of this latter finding with regard to limiting factors for the expansion of cultural repertoires in wild orangutans.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Robert Zingg and Denise Nierentz from Zurich Zoo, and Maria van Noordwijk (for help with the raw data from Tuanan), Karin Isler, Tony Weingrill, Annie Bissonnette, Cyril Grüter and Beno Schoch. All procedures of the study were performed in accordance with Swiss laws, and with the guidelines of the Primate Society of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Stephan R. Lehner, Judith M. Burkart & Carel P. van Schaik

Authors
  1. Stephan R. Lehner
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  2. Judith M. Burkart
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  3. Carel P. van Schaik
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Correspondence to Stephan R. Lehner.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 4.

Table 4 Behaviors (138) recorded during observational phase of study and components of the zoo collector’s curve in Fig. 5
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Appendix 2

See Table 5.

Table 5 First successful performance of a behavior for every subject: the latency (hh:mm:ss) from the beginning of an experiment till an individual’s first successful performance of the potential innovations occurring in the experiments, with the innovator’s latency in bold letters
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Lehner, S.R., Burkart, J.M. & van Schaik, C.P. An evaluation of the geographic method for recognizing innovations in nature, using zoo orangutans. Primates 51, 101–118 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-009-0184-8

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