From the individual to the system: Understanding knowledge movement

Información del proyecto

KNOWLEDGE MOVES

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 949379

DOI

10.3030/949379

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de la firma de la CE 16 Noviembre 2020

Fecha de inicio 1 Enero 2021

Fecha de finalización 31 Diciembre 2025

Financiado con arreglo a

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Coste total

€ 1 500 000,00

Aportación de la UE

€ 1 500 000,00

Coordinado por

UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - KNOWLEDGE MOVES (From the individual to the system: Understanding knowledge movement)

Período documentado: 2025-07-01 hasta 2025-12-31

Resumen del contexto y de los objetivos generales del proyecto

A major challenge of the Anthropocene is for individuals to adapt to rapidly changing environments. In long-lived species, adaptation will require successful innovations to spread efficiently through social units, emphasising an increasing role of social learning and culture. Given that humans are the most cultural species on the planet, what factors limit or enhance social transfer in other species?

In this project, we studied vervet monkeys are an ideal model species to study knowledge flow due to their social structure, with males dispersing multiple times within their lifetime. The research was conducted on seven groups of wild vervet monkeys at the INKAWU Vervet Project in South Africa. At the individual level, using innovative technology (bio-loggers and molecular tools), we investigated how males adjust to their new physical and social environment following dispersal with respect to dialects and diet, and respectively how groups adapted to migrants. To test how information spreads, we conducted various field experiments including some using novel touchscreen technology. Quantitative models based on the vervet data have been constructed to capture the complex sociality of this primate species both at the group and population levels.

By linking ground-breaking approaches in the wild with modelling work, this project has expended our current knowledge of social information transmission within primate societies. Understanding how information moves in changing environments improves our ability to predict how primates will cope with increasing human impact and an unpredictable future. It also refines our understanding of the uniqueness of cultural transfer in humans.

Trabajo realizado desde el comienzo del proyecto hasta el final del período abarcado por el informe y los principales resultados hasta la fecha

The project involved fitting 36 vervet monkeys with biologgers containing a GPS unit and a tri-axial acceleration sensor. The resulting dataset comprises 131’204 GPS coordinates collected over the course of a year. Furthermore, we observed 15 dispersal events involving 15 different males. This dataset is truly unique in primatology! We have just submitted a methodological paper in which we assign behavioural classes from the accelerometer data. We have also analysed the movement patterns and habitat selection of migrants versus residents. When we retrieved the GPS collars, we fitted 30 monkeys with custom-designed audio-recording collars with an auto-release function. These collars recorded vervet vocalisations for ten days. We are currently analysing this dataset. This part has been complemented by a review paper on acoustic analyses, which is currently under revision. Using eDNA methodology, we investigated the vervet diet and published two papers demonstrating the relevance of this methodology for studying the wild vervet diet and revealing group-level variation in feeding habits. We applied the same approach to an urban population of vervets to highlight the relative proportions of human and natural food in their diet. We have developed a new touchscreen setup to test the cognition of wild vervet monkeys and are now conducting further experiments with four groups. Finally, three publications concerning the modelling of long-term social data of vervet monkeys have been completed: one investigating the development of grooming bonds between immigrants and females; one examining the impact of maternal rank on male dominance and tenure post-dispersal; and one exploring how maternal investment shapes sex-specific social development. In terms of disseminating this project through outreach, six lectures were given and it was broadcast in two episodes of the Arte documentary series about animal culture.

Avances que van más allá del estado de la técnica e impacto potencial esperado (incluida la repercusión socioeconómica y las implicaciones sociales más amplias del proyecto hasta la fecha)

This project has enabled extend our observer lens to establish an unprecedented and detailed picture of immigrant wild primates, something which has major significance to understanding the nature of human societies, given our close phylogenetic relationship with other primates. By pioneering bio-logger approaches to reveal dispersing males’ trajectories as well as comparing their behaviour when alone vs in groups using accelerometers, we gathered high quality behavioural that are fully novel for the field of animal behaviour as a whole. We developed an innovative audio-recording collar that enabled us to record continuously vocalisations, opening the potential of analysing communication networks in the wild. Implementing touchscreen technology in the field has been totally ground-breaking and opening the way to investigate cognition in natural environments. The modelling part of KNOWLEDGE MOVES has highlighted the value of long term data collection and data minning to understand sociality more broadly.

A. Adult female with a bio-logger, B. Adult male, C. wild vervet monkey trained on touchscreen task