Animal Cognition最新文献

{"title":"Rapid updating of ecological information in wild Guinea baboons","authors":"Lisa Ohrndorf,&nbsp;Roger Mundry,&nbsp;Dietmar Zinner,&nbsp;Julia Fischer","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02119-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02119-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Knowing where to find what kind of food, and when, is essential for survival and reproduction. Studying animals’ foraging strategies thus provides insights into the cognitive processes underlying real-world problem solving. We investigated whether free-ranging Guinea baboons (<i>Papio papio</i>) keep track of the spatio-temporal availability of a preferred food resource, the Natal orange (<i>Strychnos spinosa</i>). An exceptional wildfire that destroyed most ripe fruits in 2019 provided a quasi-experimental opportunity to assess whether Guinea baboons flexibly adjusted their space use to an unexpected change in resource availability or instead continued to follow habitual routines. The animals’ space use patterns shifted significantly following the wildfire. After one single visit, they stopped going to the area during the period when Natal oranges would normally be available. In the following year, when Natal oranges were available again, the baboons resumed regular space use patterns. We also assessed travel linearity, speed, and departure time from sleeping sites towards the target area with and without ripe fruit. Guinea baboons travelled more linearly, 14% faster, and ca. 40 min earlier toward the target area when <i>S. spinosa</i> was in season than when it was not. In conclusion, Guinea baboons rapidly adjusted their space use patterns in response to changes in the availability of a high-value food resource. These results underscore their capacity for flexible, reward-sensitive decision-making and goal-directed foraging.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13722756/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149294047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fluency and elaboration in dolphin object play: evidence for creativity in behavioral exchanges?","authors":"Abigail H. Adams,&nbsp;Manon Themelin,&nbsp;Heather Manitzas Hill,&nbsp;Deirdre B. Yeater,&nbsp;Rachel T. Walker,&nbsp;Amy C. Hirons,&nbsp;Kathleen M. Dudzinski","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02117-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02117-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Innovative behaviors in non-human animals have been proposed as indicators of flexible thinking. Although dolphins have demonstrated creativity under stimulus control, these paradigms relied on human-directed tasks and may have overlooked spontaneous expression. This study evaluated whether object play, an unprompted behavior, could serve as a proxy for dolphin creativity by examining object play in bottlenose dolphins (<i>Tursiops truncatus</i>) in managed care and wild Atlantic spotted dolphins (<i>Stenella frontalis</i>). Video data were coded for object play events and analyzed for fluency (behavioral diversity and frequency) and elaboration (sequential organization), with consideration of object type and social context. In managed care, object play differed for bottlenose dolphins significantly by sex and age. Males accounted for 66.2% of events that were dominated by jawing, whereas females exhibited greater behavioral diversity, with higher proportions of carrying (82.4%) and pushing (87.5%). Younger dolphins showed higher frequencies of jawing (62.6%), whereas older individuals exhibited greater use of manipulation behaviors. Object use also differed by sex, with males primarily interacting with a single object category (80.5%), whereas females more frequently engaged with leaves (92.3%) and seagrass (64.3%). In contrast, wild spotted dolphins showed no significant differences across sex or age, and interactions were dominated by seaweed (≥ 81%) across all groups. Lag sequential analysis revealed structured, non-random behavioral organization for OP in both populations. Bottlenose dolphins exhibited more diverse behavior transitions than spotted dolphins. Higher-order analyses identified behavioral associations beyond immediate transitions, supporting behavioral elaboration. Object play offers a window into spontaneous creativity among dolphins to better understand their cognitive capacity in novel situations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13719832/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149293991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leaning left: how turn bias and habitat complexity shape spatial cognition in a coral-reef fish","authors":"Helen von Drenkmann,&nbsp;Annabell Klinke,&nbsp;Culum Brown","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02116-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02116-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In coral reef ecosystems, anthropogenic change is rapidly altering habitat structure, but the consequences for fish cognition remain poorly understood. We tested whether structural habitat complexity influences spatial learning and strategy use in the humbug damselfish (<i>Dascyllus aruanus</i>). Juveniles were reared in aquaria containing either high- or low-complexity coral structures and trained in a T-maze task, requiring the use of egocentric (turn-based) and/or allocentric (landmark-based) strategies to locate a reward. Performance was assessed using the number of trials to reach a learning criterion and latency to make correct decisions. Probe trials with conflicting cues assessed navigation strategies. Turn direction was the strongest predictor of performance. Fish trained to turn left reached criterion in fewer trials and consistently relied on egocentric strategies, indicative of a lateralisation bias. In contrast, right-turning fish increasingly relied on landmark cues during probe trials and made faster decisions when doing so, suggesting that allocentric strategies reduced the cost of acting against intrinsic turn biases. Contrary to our expectation, environmental complexity did not affect the number of trials required to reach criterion. However, high-complexity fish located the reward faster during early training and showed longer decision latencies during probe trials, suggesting greater sensitivity to landmark information when cues conflicted. Our results suggest that spatial task performance may be shaped more by turn biases and strategy use than by environmental complexity alone, highlighting the importance of considering intrinsic behavioural constraints when interpreting spatial cognition.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02116-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149189099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioral characterization of dynamic facial expression perception in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) using naturalistic and synthetic stimuli","authors":"Ramona Siebert,&nbsp;Nick Taubert,&nbsp;Martin A. Giese,&nbsp;Peter Thier","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02109-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02109-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Facial displays are an important channel of communication for primates, yet it remains unclear based on which criteria monkeys evaluate facial expressions. We trained two rhesus macaques to categorize videos of four facial expression types (neutral, lip-smacking, silent bared-teeth (SBT) and open-mouth threat displays) and then tested generalization to novel individuals and avatars while measuring pupillary responses. The animals were able to categorize facial expressions and generalized their classifications to novel, untrained videos, although performance was not perfect. Misclassifications were not driven solely by visual similarity between expression categories, as demonstrated by a novel automated approach integrating deep learning-based motion tracking with the Macaque Facial Action Coding System to enable objective quantification of facial action units. Instead, open-mouth threats were readily categorized correctly and distinguished from lip-smacking, while also eliciting the strongest arousal responses. By contrast, categorization of SBT displays varied substantially across stimulus identities, influenced by body weight, gaze direction, and coordinated movements of eyebrows and ears. Morphed avatar expressions were categorized according to expression component intensity, demonstrating graded perception. Avatar manipulations revealed that categorization was robust against lack of coherent motion and lack of facial realism beyond a basic level of texture. However, human facial expressions elicited no systematic categorizations or differential arousal. Our findings indicate that conspecific facial expressions were perceived as functionally meaningful, context-dependent social signals shaped by all components of facial behavior and signaler characteristics, rather than fixed, mouth movement-defined categories.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02109-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149189342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elephant gestural communication during agonistic interactions: repertoire, intentionality, and goals","authors":"Vesta Eleuteri,&nbsp;Anna Letrari,&nbsp;Lucy Bates,&nbsp;Catherine Hobaiter,&nbsp;Angela Stoeger","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02108-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02108-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Goal-directed intentionality is the ability to communicate with the intention of eliciting reactions from recipients. Long considered uniquely human, today it has been reported in the signalling of several species, most notably in the large, flexible gestural repertoires of non-human apes. Semi-captive elephants have also shown goal-directed intentionality when gesturing to humans. However, whether wild elephants gesture intentionally to conspecifics has not been systematically explored. Elephants frequently engage in agonistic interactions, in which goal-directed intentional communication may help resolve conflict and prevent escalation. Here, we systematically investigated intentional gesturing in wild African savannah elephants by examining agonistic interactions in the Addo and Marakele populations in South Africa. Elephants used 41 gesture types (derived from 32 gesture actions) to communicate two main goals: “Move away” and “Stop behaviour”. The gesture types used by the populations largely overlapped, suggesting a shared context-specific repertoire for agonistic interactions. However, the populations differed in the gesture types they used most frequently and in the resources they competed over (water in Addo, reeds in Marakele). Our study supports the convergent evolution of extensive and flexible intentional gestural communication in elephants, providing insights into the drivers of elephant agonistic behaviour and highlighting potential conservation implications.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13619774/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149073424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cooperation in brown capuchin monkeys: social tolerance, individual traits, and partner sensitivity in a Stag Hunt task","authors":"Kaustabh M. Baruah,&nbsp;Josep Call,&nbsp;Amanda M. Seed","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02107-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02107-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Mutualism with free partner choice is considered a key foundation in the evolution of cooperative behaviour, yet many experimental studies restrict partner choice or provide few alternative options, limiting our insight into the factors shaping cooperative decisions. We investigated cooperation in two groups of captive brown capuchin monkeys (<i>Sapajus</i> spp.) using an apparatus implementing the Stag Hunt paradigm. Individuals could freely choose between a cooperative option, a “Stag box” requiring simultaneous lever pressing by two individuals to obtain high-value rewards, and four individually operable “Hare boxes” that yielded lower-value rewards. Monkeys were free to select partners and interact with any boxes in six sessions. Most individuals (East: <i>N</i> = 22; West: <i>N</i> = 18) engaged in successful cooperative bouts in the Stag box and also obtained rewards individually from the Hare boxes. Generalized linear mixed models showed that dyadic tolerance significantly predicted the likelihood of cooperation in both groups. Individual characteristics also influenced engagement: exploratory individuals and dyads involving juveniles participated in more cooperative interactions. Further analyses of pressing behaviour indicated that the partner presence effect differed across contexts and groups. In the East Group, partner presence increased Stag-box pressing but lowered Hare-box pressing, whereas in the West Group, Stag-box pressing increased across sessions but did not differ depending on whether a partner was present or absent. These findings highlight the importance of integrating social relationships and individual traits to understand cooperative decision-making in primates and demonstrate how paradigms allowing free partner choice can reveal the social dynamics underlying cooperation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02107-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149234462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When orcas hit the rudder: what Iberian orca–boat interactions reveal about action explanations in animal cognition","authors":"Christian Frings","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02104-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02104-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Since 2020, Iberian orcas have repeatedly interacted with sailing vessels, often targeting rudders. These well-documented interactions have been discussed primarily as play, exploration, maladaptation, or a product of cultural transmission. Here, I argue for a complementary interpretation. This phenomenon also exposes a broader explanatory issue in animal cognition: complex animal behavior in the wild is often described without an explicit theory of action. Drawing on cognitive action–effect approaches, I suggest that rudder-directed interactions may also be understood as actions organized around anticipated environmental consequences. The orca case thus highlights the need for action models that can travel across species, ecological contexts, and disciplinary boundaries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02104-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contagious yawning is stronger in wolves than in dog-admixed wolves","authors":"Federica Amici,&nbsp;Katja Liebal,&nbsp;Linda Oña,&nbsp;Mattia Iacuzzi,&nbsp;Tina Altdörfer,&nbsp;Arne Gretschzel,&nbsp;George Kamanga,&nbsp;Manon Delaunay,&nbsp;Paolo Ciucci","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02086-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02086-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Behavioural contagion occurs when the behaviour of one individual elicits the same behaviour in another individual observing the event, and it is considered one of the fundamental mechanisms promoting group coordination and cohesion in social species, including humans. Empirical research on behavioural contagion has focused primarily on yawning and has shown evidence of it in several animal species. Here, we studied behavioural contagion in 2 groups of captive wolves (N = 20) and 3 groups of captive dog-admixed wolves (N = 13). We conducted behavioural observations of naturally occurring yawning events and monitored the yawning behaviour of the other group members in the two minutes following each event. Our results showed that, in both admixed and non-admixed wolves, individuals who had the opportunity to observe the initial yawn were significantly more likely to yawn within the subsequent two minutes than those who had not observed the event. Crucially, this effect was stronger in non-admixed than in admixed wolves. Furthermore, individuals that were more socially integrated were more likely to elicit behavioural contagion in both admixed and non-admixed wolves. In contrast, neither individual rank nor dyadic relationship quality between the yawner and the observer mediated the probability of contagion. By revealing variation in behavioural contagion patterns between admixed and non-admixed wolves, this study provides insights into how introgressive hybridization with domestic species may influence mechanisms underlying social coordination and pack cohesion in wolves.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02086-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148782615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of sibling competition and physiological and behavioural differences on problem-solving of wild cavies (Cavia aperea)","authors":"Sabine Kraus,&nbsp;Anja Guenther","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02094-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02094-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Behavioural innovations can be crucial for animals to adjust to changing environments and to exploit novel resources. While ecological and evolutionary implications of innovativeness have been investigated intensely, the proximate mechanisms underlying this behaviour are less well understood. Intrinsic individual differences arising from differences in competitive abilities have been hypothesised to drive differences in innovation propensity (bad-competitor hypothesis). We here investigated the relationship between early-life competition among siblings as well as effects of several physiological and personality traits on innovation propensity in young wild cavies (<i>Cavia aperea</i>). Our study aimed to test whether competitive situations in early life, such as being a small sibling or being born in larger litters, enhanced innovation propensity. Furthermore, we tested if intrinsic physiological or behavioural characteristics differed between solvers and non-solvers. We found that neither size rank nor litter size influenced innovation propensity in young cavies at independence. Likewise, physiological traits such as cortisol level, heart rate, and resting metabolic rate did not differ systematically between solvers and non-solvers, although heart rate and resting metabolic rate were repeatable. However, individuals that interacted more with novel objects and innovation tasks were more likely to solve them. Our results suggest that innovation propensity is not shaped by early-life competition or physiological differences but may rather develop consistent individual differences later in life, potentially by competition for mating opportunities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10071-026-02094-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148720833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Olfactory cognition","authors":"Jeffrey S. Katz,&nbsp;Lucia Lazarowski","doi":"10.1007/s10071-026-02073-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10071-026-02073-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":7879,"journal":{"name":"Animal Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13451265/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148683360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}