Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-17T07:19:42.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Animal innovation defined and operationalized

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2007

Grant Ramsey
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556-4619grant.ramsey@nd.eduhttp://philosophy.nd.edu/people/all/profiles/ramsey-grant/index.shtml
Meredith L. Bastian
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0383mlb22@duke.eduhttp://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/BAA/grad/mlb22
Carel van Schaik
Affiliation:
Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerlandvschaik@aim.unizh.chhttp://www.aim.unizh.ch/Members/vanschaik.html

Abstract

Innovation is a key component of most definitions of culture and intelligence. Additionally, innovations may affect a species' ecology and evolution. Nonetheless, conceptual and empirical work on innovation has only recently begun. In particular, largely because the existing operational definition (first occurrence in a population) requires long-term studies of populations, there has been no systematic study of innovation in wild animals. To facilitate such study, we have produced a new definition of innovation: Innovation is the process that generates in an individual a novel learned behavior that is not simply a consequence of social learning or environmental induction. Using this definition, we propose a new operational approach for distinguishing innovations in the field. The operational criteria employ information from the following sources: (1) the behavior's geographic and local prevalence and individual frequency; (2) properties of the behavior, such as the social role of the behavior, the context in which the behavior is exhibited, and its similarity to other behaviors; (3) changes in the occurrence of the behavior over time; and (4) knowledge of spontaneous or experimentally induced behavior in captivity. These criteria do not require long-term studies at a single site, but information from multiple populations of a species will generally be needed. These criteria are systematized into a dichotomous key that can be used to assess whether a behavior observed in the field is likely to be an innovation.

Type
Main Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altmann, S. A. (1998) Foraging for survival: Yearling baboons in Africa. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J. M. (1896a) A new factor in evolution. American Naturalist 30:441–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, C. (1995) Innovation in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). International Journal of Primatology 16:116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesch, C. (1996) The emergence of cultures among wild chimpanzees. In: Evolution of social behaviour patterns in primates and man, ed. Runciman, W. G., Maynard-Smith, J. & Dunbar, R. I. M.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. & Boesch, H. (1981) Sex differences in the use of natural hammers by wild chimpanzees: A preliminary report. Journal of Human Evolution 10:585–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Box, H. O. (1984) Behavioral responses to environmental change: Some preliminary observations on common marmosets. Social Behavior and Human Affairs 49:8189.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. W. (1995) The thinking ape: Evolutionary origins of intelligence. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, R. W. & Corp, N. (2004) Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271:1693–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caldwell, C. A. & Whiten, A. (2002) Evolutionary perspectives on imitation: Is a comparative psychology of social learning possible? Animal Cognition 5:193208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Custance, D. M., Whiten, A. & Fredman, T. (1999) Social learning of an artificial fruit task in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Journal of Comparative Psychology 113:1323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaner, R.O., van Schaik, C. P. & Johnson, V. (2006) Do some taxa have better domain-general cognition than others? A meta-analysis of nonhuman primate studies. Evolutionary Psychology 4:149–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1975) Ethology: The biology of behavior. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Fox, E. A., Sitompul, A. F. & van Schaik, C. P. (1999) Intelligent tool use in wild Sumatran orangutans. In: The mentality of gorillas and orangutans, ed. Parker, S., Miles, L. & Mitchell, A.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, E. A., van Schaik, C. P., Sitompul, A. & Wright, D. N. (2004) Intra- and interpopulational differences in orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) activity and diet: Implications for the invention of tool use. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125:162–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fragaszy, D. M., Izar, P., Visalberghi, E., Ottoni, E. B. & de Oliveria, M. G. (2004) Wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus libidinosus) use anvils and stone pounding tools. American Journal of Primatology 64:359–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galef, B. G. Jr. (2003) “Traditional” foraging behaviors of brown and black rats (Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus). In: The biology of traditions: Models and evidence, ed. Fragaszy, D. M. & Perry, S.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Garcia, J. & Koelling, R. A. (1966) Relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning. Psychonomic Science 4:123–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giraldeau, L. A. (1997) The ecology of information use. In: Behavioural Ecology, ed. Krebs, J. R. & Davies, N. B.. Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Giraldeau, L., Soos, C. & Beauchamp, G. (1994) A test of the producer-scrounger foraging game in captive flocks of spice finches, Lonchura punctulata. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 34:251–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, M. D. (1988) Invention and social transmission: New data from wild vervet monkeys. In: Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans, ed. Byrne, R. W. & Whiten, A., pp. 327–43. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. (2001) Cultural transmission and the diffusion of innovations: Adoption dynamics indicate that biased cultural transmission is the predominate force in behavioral change. American Anthropologist 103:9921013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R. A. (1970) Animal behavior: A synthesis of ethology and comparative psychology, 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & Fisher, J. (1951) Further observations on the opening of milk bottles by birds. British Birds 44:393–96.Google Scholar
Hohmann, G. & Fruth, B. (2003) Intra- and inter-sexual aggression by bonobos in the context of mating. Behaviour 140:13891413.Google Scholar
Huffman, M. A. & Hirata, S. (2003) Biological and ecological foundations of primate behavioral traditions. In: The biology of traditions: Models and evidence, ed. Fragaszy, D. M. & Perry, S.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Imanishi, K. (1952) Man. Mainichi-Shinbunsha (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Janik, V. M. & Slater, P. J. B. (2000) The different roles of social learning in vocal communication. Animal Behaviour 60:111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jantschke, F. (1972) Orang-utans in zoologischen garten. R. Piper.Google Scholar
Johnson, V. E., Deaner, R. O. & van Schaik, C. P. (2002) Bayesian analysis of multi-study rank data with application to primate intelligence ratings. Journal of the American Statistical Society 97:817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kawamura, S. (1959) The process of sub-culture propagation among Japanese macaques. Primates 2:4360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenward, B., Rutz, C., Weir, A. A. S. & Kacelnik, A. (2006) Development of tool use in New Caledonian crows: Inherited action patterns and social influences. Animal Behavior 72:1329–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenward, B., Weir, A. A. S., Rutz, C. & Kacelnik, A. (2005) Behavioural ecology: Tool manufacture by naive juvenile crows. Nature 433:121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kummer, H. (1971) Primate societies: Group techniques of ecological adaptation. AHM Publishing.Google Scholar
Kummer, H. & Goodall, J. (1985) Conditions of innovative behaviour in primates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 308:203–14.Google Scholar
Laland, K. N. & Janik, V. (2006) The animal cultures debate. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21(10):542–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lefebvre, L. (2000) Feeding innovations and their cultural transmission in bird populations. In: The evolution of cognition, ed. Heyes, C. M. & Huber, L.. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, L. & Bolhuis, J. (2003) Positive and negative correlates of feeding innovations in birds: Evidence for limited modularity. In: Animal innovation, ed. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, L., Reader, S. M. & Sol, D. (2004) Brains, innovations and evolution in birds and primates. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 63(4):233–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lefebvre, L., Whittle, P., Lascaris, E. & Finkelstein, A. (1997) Feeding innovations and forebrain size in birds. Animal Behaviour 53:549–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levins, R. (1968) Evolution in changing environments. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsuzawa, T. (1994) Field experiments on use of stone tools by chimpanzees in the wild. In: Chimpanzee cultures, ed. Wrangham, R. W., McGrew, W. C., de Waal, F. B. M. & Heltne, P. G.. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McGrew, W. C. (1998) Culture in nonhuman primates? Annual Review of Anthropology 27:310–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrew, W. C. (2004) Invention and innovation. Nature 427:679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrew, W. C. & Tutin, C. E. G. (1978) Evidence for a social custom in wild chimpanzees? Man 13:234–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mettke-Hofmann, C., Winkler, H. & Leisler, B. (2002) The significance of ecological factors for exploration and neophobia in parrots. Ethology 108:249–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morand-Ferron, J., Lefebvre, L., Reader, S. M., Sol, D. & Elvin, S. (2004) Dunking behaviour in Carib grackles. Animal Behaviour 68:1267–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolakakis, N. & Lefebvre, L. (2000) Forebrain size and innovation rate in European birds: Feeding, nesting and confounding variables. Behaviour 137:1415–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odling-Smee, F. J., Laland, K. N. & Feldman, M. W. (2003) Niche construction: The neglected process in evolution. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, S. Z., Kerr, M., Markowitz, H. & Gould, J. (1999) A survey of tool use in zoo gorillas. In: The mentalities of gorillas and orangutans: Comparative perspectives, ed. Parker, S. T., Mitchell, R. W. & Miles, H. L.. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, S. & Manson, J. H. (2003) Traditions in monkeys. Evolutionary Anthropology 12:7181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, S., Panger, M., Rose, L. M., Baker, M., Gros-Louis, J., Jack, K., MacKinnon, K. C., Manson, J., Fedigan, L. & Pyle, K. (2003) Traditions in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys. In: The biology of traditions: Models and evidence, ed. Fragaszy, D. M. & Perry, S.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reader, S. M. (2003) Innovation and social learning: Individual variation and brain evolution. Animal Biology 53:147–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, S. M. (2004) Distinguishing social and asocial learning using diffusion dynamics. Learning & Behavior 32:90104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N. (2001) Primate innovation: Sex, age and social rank differences. International Journal of Primatology 22:787805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, S. M. (2002) Social intelligence, innovation and enhanced brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99:4436–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reader, S. M. (2003a) Animal innovation: An introduction. In: Animal innovation, ed. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N., pp. 335. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N., eds. (2003b) Animal innovation. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rendell, L. & Whitehead, H. (2001) Culture in whales and dolphins. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24(2):309–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogers, E. M. (1983) Diffusion of innovations. The Free Press.Google Scholar
Rumbaugh, D. M. & Washburn, D. A. (2003) Intelligence of apes and other rational beings. Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumbaugh, D. M., Washburn, D. A. & Hillix, W. A. (1996) Respondants, operants, and emergents: Toward an integrated perspective on behavior. In: Learning as self-organizing process, ed. Pribram, K. & King, J.. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Russon, A. E. & Galdikas, B. M. (1995) Constraints on great apes' imitation: Model and action selectivity in rehabilitant orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) imitation. Journal of Comparative Psychology 109:517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simonton, D. K. (2003) Human creativity: Two Darwinian analyses. In: Animal innovation, ed. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1935) The generic nature of the concepts of stimulus and response. Journal of General Psychology 12:4065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, P. J. B. & Lachlan, R. F. (2003) Is innovation in bird song adaptive? In: Animal innovation, ed. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N., pp. 117–36. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sol, D. (2003) Behavioral innovation: A neglected issue in the ecological and evolutionary literature? In: Animal innovation, ed. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N., pp. 6382. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sol, D., Duncan, R. P., Blackburn, T. M., Cassey, P. & Lefebvre, L. (2005a) Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102:5460–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tebbich, S., Taborsky, M., Fessl, B. & Blomqvist, D. (2001) Do woodpecker finches acquire tool-use by social learning? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268: 2189–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Schaik, C. P. (2003) Local traditions in orangutans and chimpanzees: Social learning and social tolerance. In: The biology of traditions: Models and evidence, ed. Fragaszy, D. M. & Perry, S.. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
van Schaik, C. P. (in press) Geographic variation in the behavior of wild great apes: Is it really cultural? In: The question of culture, ed. Galef, B. G. & Laland, K..Google Scholar
van Schaik, C. P., Ancrenaz, M., Borgen, G., Galdikas, B., Knott, C. D., Singleton, I., Suzuki, A., Utami, S. S. & Merrill, M. Y. (2003a) Orangutan cultures and the evolution of material culture. Science 299:102105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Schaik, C. P., Fox, E. A. & Fechtman, L. T. (2003b) Individual variation in the rate of use of tree-hole tools among wild orang-utans: Implications for hominin evolution. Journal of Human Evolution 44:1123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Schaik, C. P., Fox, E. A. & Sitompul, A. F. (1996) Manufacture and use of tools in wild Sumatran orangutans. Naturwissenschaften 83:186–88.Google ScholarPubMed
van Schaik, C. P. & Pradhan, G. R. (2003) A model for tool-use traditions in primates: Implications for the coevolution of culture and cognition. Journal of Human Evolution 44:645–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Schaik, C. P., van Noordwijk, M. A. & Wich, S. A. (2006) Innovation in wild Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). Behaviour 143(7):839–76.Google Scholar
Visalberghi, E. & Limongelli, L. (1994) Lack of comprehension of cause-effect relations in tool-using capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Journal of Comparative Psychology 108:1522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West-Eberhard, M. J. (2003) Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W. & Boesch, C. (1999) Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399:682–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W. & Boesch, C. (2001) Charting cultural variation in chimpanzees. Behaviour 138:14811516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., Horner, V. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005) Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature 437:737–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A. & van Schaik, C. P. (2007) The evolution of animal “cultures” and social intelligence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 362:603–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whittaker, R. H. (1972) Evolution and measurement of species diversity. Taxon 21:213–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyles, J. S., Kundel, J. G. & Wilson, A. C. (1983) Birds, behaviour, and anatomical evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 80:4394–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoerg, S. I. (2001) Clever as a fox: Animal intelligence and what it can teach us about ourselves. Bloomsbury.Google Scholar