Abstract
Remembering locations of food resources is critical for animal survival. Gibbons are territorial primates which regularly travel through small and stable home ranges in search of preferred, limited and patchily distributed resources (primarily ripe fruit). They are predicted to profit from an ability to memorize the spatial characteristics of their home range and may increase their foraging efficiency by using a ‘cognitive map’ either with Euclidean or with topological properties. We collected ranging and feeding data from 11 gibbon groups (Hylobates lar) to test their navigation skills and to better understand gibbons’ ‘spatial intelligence’. We calculated the locations at which significant travel direction changes occurred using the change-point direction test and found that these locations primarily coincided with preferred fruit sources. Within the limits of biologically realistic visibility distances observed, gibbon travel paths were more efficient in detecting known preferred food sources than a heuristic travel model based on straight travel paths in random directions. Because consecutive travel change-points were far from the gibbons’ sight, planned movement between preferred food sources was the most parsimonious explanation for the observed travel patterns. Gibbon travel appears to connect preferred food sources as expected under the assumption of a good mental representation of the most relevant sources in a large-scale space.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barelli C, Heistermann M, Boesch C, Reichard UH (2007) Sexual swellings in wild white-handed gibbon females (Hylobates lar) indicate the probability of ovulation. Horm Behav 51:221–230
Barelli C, Heistermann M, Boesch C, Reichard UH (2008) Mating patterns and sexual swellings in pair-living and multimale groups of wild white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar. Anim Behav 75:991–1001
Bartlett TQ (1999) Feeding and ranging behaviour of the white-headed gibbon (Hylobates lar) in Khai Yai National Park, Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation thesis, Washington University
Bartlett TQ (2007) The Hylobatidae small apes of Asia. In: Campbell CJ, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Panger M, Bearder SK (eds) Primates in perspective. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 274–289
Bartlett TQ (2009) Seasonal home range use and defendability in white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. In: Lappan S, Whittacker DJ (eds) The gibbons: new perspectives on small ape socioecology and population biology. Springer, New York, pp 265–275
Benhamou S (1996) No evidence for cognitive mapping in rats. Anim Behav 52:201–212
Benhamou S (2004) How to reliably estimate the tortuosity of an animal’s path: straightness, sinuosity, or fractal dimension? J Theor Biol 229:209–220
Bennett ATD (1996) Do animals have cognitive maps? J Exp Biol 199:219–224
Bingman VP, Jones TJ (1994) Sun compass-based spatial learning impaired in homing pigeons with hippocampal lesions. J Neurosci 14:6687–6694
Brockelman WY (1998) Study of tropical forest canopy height and cover using a point-intercept method. In: Dallmeier F, Comiskey JA (eds) Forest biodiversity research, monitoring and modeling: conceptual background and old world case studies. Man and the biosphere series. UNESCO, Paris, and Parthenon Publishing, New York, pp 521–531
Brockelman WY (2009) Ecology and the social system of gibbons. In: Lappan S, Whittacker DJ (eds) The gibbons: new perspectives on small ape socioecology and population biology. Springer, New York, pp 211–239
Brockelman WY, Reichard U, Treesucon U, Raemaekers JR (1998) Dispersal, pair formation and social structure in gibbons (Hylobates lar). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 42:329–339
Byrne RW (1979) Memory for urban geography. Q J Exp Psychol 31:147–154
Byrne RW (1982) Geographical knowledge and orientation. In: Ellis A (ed) Normality and pathology of cognitive function. Academic Press, London, pp 239–264
Byrne RW (2000) How monkeys find their way: leaderships, coordination, and cognitive maps of African baboons. In: Boinski S, Garber PA (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp 491–518
Byrne RW, Noser R, Bates LA, Jupp PE (2009) How did they get here from there? Detecting changes of direction in terrestrial ranging. Anim Behav 77:619–631
Cant JGH, Youlatos D, Rose MD (2001) Locomotor behavior of Lagothrix lagotricha and Ateles belzebuth in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador: general patterns and nonsuspensory modes. J Hum Evol 41:141–166
Clarke E, Reichard UH, Zuberbühler K (2006) The syntax and meaning of wild gibbon songs. PLoS ONE 1(1):e73. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000073
Clutton-Brock TH, Harvey PH (1980) Primate brains and ecology. J Zool 207:151–169
Cunningham EP, Janson CH (2007) Integrating information about location and value of resources by white-faced saki monkeys (Pithecia pithecia). Anim Cogn 10:293–304
Di Fiore A, Campbell CJ (2007) The atelines: variation in ecology, behavior, and social organization. In: Campbell CJ, Fuentes A, Mackinnon KC, Panger M, Bearder SK (eds) Primates in perspective. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 155–185
Di Fiore A, Suarez SA (2007) Route-based travel and shared routes in sympatric spider and woolly monkeys: cognitive and evolutionary implications. Anim Cogn 10:317–329
Dyer FC (1991) Bees acquire route-based memories but not cognitive maps in a familiar landscape. Anim Behav 41:239–246
Elder AA (2009) Hylobatid diets revisited: the importance of body mass, fruit availability, and interspecific competition. In: Lappan S, Whittacker DJ (eds) The gibbons: new perspectives on small ape socioecology and population biology. Springer, New York, pp 133–159
Erhart EM, Overdorff DJ (2008) Spatial memory during foraging in prosimian primates: Propithecus edwardsi and Eulemur fulvus rufus. Folia Primatol 79:185–196
Etienne AS, Berlie J, Georgakopoulos J, Maurer R (1998) Role of dead reckoning in navigation. In: Healy S (ed) Spatial representations in animals. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 54–68
Foo P, Warren WH, Duchon A, Tarr MJ (2005) Do humans integrate routes into a cognitive map? Map- versus landmark-based navigation of novel shortcuts. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 31:195–215
Gallistel CR, Cramer AE (1996) Computations maps in mammals: getting oriented and multidestination route. J Exp Biol 199:211–217
Garber PA (1989) Role of spatial memory in primate foraging patterns in Saguinus mystax and Saguinus fuscicollis. Am J Primatol 19:203–216
Garber PA (2000) Evidence for the use of spatial, temporal and social information by some primate foragers. In: Boinski S, Garber P (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 165–203
Gillner S, Mallot HA (1997) Navigation and acquisition of spatial knowledge in a virtual maze. J Cog Neurosci 10:445–463
Gittins SP, Raemaekers JJ (1980) Siamang, lar and agile gibbons. In: Chivers DJ (ed) Malayan forest primates: ten years’ study in tropical rain forest. Plenum Press, New York, pp 63–105
Gould JL (1986) The locale map of honey bees: do insects have cognitive maps? Science 232:861–863
Held S, Baumgartner J, Kilbride A, Byrne RW (2005) Foraging behaviour in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa): remembering and prioritizing food sites of different value. Anim Cogn 8:114–121
Hemingway CA, Bynum N (2005) The influence of seasonality on primate diet and ranging. In: Brockman DK, van Schaik CP (eds) Seasonality in primates: studies of living and extinct human and non-human primates. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 57–104
Janmaat KRL, Byrne RW, Zuberbühler K (2006) Evidence for a spatial memory of fruiting states of rainforest trees in wild mangabeys. Anim Behav 72:797–807
Janson CH (1998) Experimental evidence for spatial memory in foraging wild capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella. Anim Behav 55:1229–1243
Janson CH, Byrne RW (2007) What wild primates know about resources: opening up the black box. Anim Cogn 10:357–367
Janson CH, Di Bitetti MS (1997) Experimental analysis of food detection in capuchin monkeys: effects of distance, travel speed, and resource size. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 41:17–24
Kim SG, Ugurbil K, Strick PL (1994) Activation of a cerebellar output nucleus during cognitive processing. Science 265:949–951
Leighton DR (1987) Gibbons: territoriality and monogamy. In: Smuts BB, Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM, Wrangham RW, Struhsaker TT (eds) Primate societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 135–145
Link A, Di Fiore A (2006) See dispersal by spider monkeys and its importance in the maintenance of neotropical rain-forest diversity. J Trop Ecol 22:235–246
MacKinnon J (1974) The behaviour and ecology of wild orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus). Anim Behav 22:3–74
MacLeod CE (2004) What's a brain? The question of a distinctive brain anatomy in great a apes. In: Russon AE, Begun DR (eds) The evolution of thought: evolutionary origins of great ape intelligence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 105–121
MacLeod CE, Zilles K, Schleicher A, Rilling JK, Gibson KR (2003) Expansion of the neocerebellum in Hominoidea. J Hum Evol 44:401–429
McConkey KR (2009) The seed dispersal niche of gibbons in Bornean dipterocarp forests. In: Lappan S, Whittacker DJ (eds) The gibbons: new perspectives on small ape socioecology and population biology. Springer, New York, pp 189–207
Menzel R, Brandt R, Gumbert A, Komischke B (2000) Two spatial memories for honeybee navigation. Proc R Soc Lond B 267:961–968
Milton K (1981) Distribution patterns of tropical plant foods as an evolutionary stimulus to primate mental development. Am Anthropol 83:534–548
Milton K (2000) Quo vadis? Tactics of food search and group movements in primates and other animals. In: Boinski S, Garber PA (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 375–417
Normand E, Boesch C (2009) Sophisticated Euclidean maps in forest chimpanzees. Anim Behav 77:1195–1201
Noser RW, Byrne RW (2007) Mental maps in chacma baboons (Papio ursinus): using intergroup encounters as a natural experiment. Anim Cogn 10:331–347
Noser RW, Byrne RW (2010) How do wild baboons (Papio ursinus) plan their routes? Travel among multiple high-quality food sources with inter-group competition. Anim Cogn 13(1):145–155
O’Neill MJ (1991) Evaluation of a conceptual model of architectural legibility. Environ Behav 23:259–284
Olupot W, Chapman CA, Waser PM, Isabirye Basuta G (1997) Mangabey (Cercocebus albigena) ranging patterns in relation to fruit availability and the risk of parasite infection in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Am J Primatol 43:65–78
Piaget J, Inhelder B (1956) The child’s conception of space. Routledge, London
Ponticorvo M, Miglino O (2010) Encoding geometric and non-geometric information: a study with evolved agents. Anim Cogn 13:157–174
Potts R (2004) Paleoenvironmental basis of cognitive evolution in great apes. Am J Primatol 62:209–238
Poucet B (1993) Spatial cognitive maps in animals, new hypotheses on their structure and neural mechanisms. Psychol Rev 100:163–182
Reichard UH (2003) Social monogamy in gibbons: the male perspective. In: Reichard UH, Boesch C (eds) Monogamy: mating strategies and partnerships in birds, humans and other mammals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 190–213
Reichard UH (2009) The social organization and mating system of Khao Yai white-handed gibbons: 1992–2006. In: Lappan S, Whittacker DJ (eds) The gibbons: new perspectives on small ape socioecology and population biology. Springer, New York, pp 347–384
Reichard U, Sommer V (1997) Group encounters in wild gibbons (Hylobates lar): agonism, affiliation, and the concept of infanticide. Behaviour 134:1135–1174
Rilling JK, Insel TR (1998) Evolution of the primate cerebellum: differences in relative volume among monkeys, apes and humans. Brain Behav Evol 52:308–314
Savini T, Boesch C, Reichard UH (2008) Home range characteristics and the influence of seasonality on females reproductive success in white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) at Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Am J Phys Anthropol 135:1–12
Schkolkopf B, Mallot HA (1995) View-based cognitive mapping and path planning. Adapt Behav 3:311–348
Schoener TW (1983) Simple models of optimal feeding territory size: a reconciliation. Am Nat 121:608–629
Shanahan M, So S, Compton SG, Corlett RT (2001) Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review. Biol Rev 76:529–572
Shettleworth SJ (1998) Cognition, evolution, and behavior. Oxford University Press, New York
Silverman I (2006) Non-Euclidean navigational strategies of women: compensatory response or evolved dimorphism? Evol Psychol 4:75–84
Silverman I, Choi J (2005) Locating places. In: Buss DM (ed) The evolutionary psychology handbook. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 177–199
Sturz BR, Bodily KD, Katz JS (2006) Evidence against integration of spatial maps in humans. Anim Cogn 9:207–217
Tolman EC (1948) Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychol Rev 55:198–208
Valero A, Byrne RW (2007) Spider monkey ranging patterns in Mexican subtropical forest: do travel routes reflect planning? Anim Cogn 10:305–331
van Schaik CP, Terborgh JW, Wright SJ (1993) The phenology of tropical forests: adaptive significance and the consequences for primary consumers. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 24:353–377
Wallraff H (2001) Navigation by homing pigeons, part 2. Ethol Ecol Evol 1–48
Wehner R (1981) Spatial vision in arthropods. In: Autrum H (ed) Handbook of sensory physiology, vol VII/6C. Springer, Berlin, pp 287–616
Acknowledgments
We want to thank R.W. Byrne, R. Noser and L.A. Bates for kindly providing help, instructions and useful comments for correctly performing the CPT test in R and interpreting its results. C. Sangnate, S. Homros and W. Tetsarai are acknowledged for all their help during data collection at Khao Yai National Park. We also thank U. Martmoon, R. Samnuek, P. Wonksorn, T. Ong-In, T. Savini, A. Alberts and J.F. Maxwell for botanical assistance. We are grateful to the staff of Khao Yai National Park and especially to M. Ganpanakngan and P. Chanteap. Our gratitude also goes to the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) and the National Park Division (DNP) for allowing us to conduct research in Thailand. This research was possible due to the Postdoc Fellowship program from Mahidol University, Thailand (to N.A) and a grant from the L.S.B. Leakey foundation (to U.R). This study complied with current laws of the NRCT and DNP in Thailand.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
10071_2010_374_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Supplementary material 1. Diet of the gibbon study groups during observation period (ordered in chronological time). Created with Office 2007. (PDF 335 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Asensio, N., Brockelman, W.Y., Malaivijitnond, S. et al. Gibbon travel paths are goal oriented. Anim Cogn 14, 395–405 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-010-0374-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-010-0374-1