Personality can be many times more than social context. It is also seen among humans and, according to a scientific study, among orangutans. The researchers came to the following conclusion: The communicative behavior and social responses of orangutans differ between individuals, and they are also flexible.. a) Yes, Orangutan mothers differ not only in the composition of their repertoire of gestures for their offspring, but also in communication tactics.such as repetition of gestures or response to puppies’ requests.
The first question that often comes up is whether orangutans have personalities. Scientists believe this because they thought of this species alongside chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos,”non-human people“.
Individuals of this species maintain emotional bonds, reason, feel, be physically and psychologically ill in captivity, make decisions, have the ability to solve problems, have self-awareness and a sense of time, mourn loss, learn, communicate and pass on what they have learned to others complex cultural systemsas in humans.
A Swiss-German team led by the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and behavioral scientist Marlen Fröhlich from the Paleoenvironment studied mother-infant interactions in orangutans.
The research group paid particular attention to the individual differences and flexibility in communication strategies of the orangutan mothers they worked with, both in the wild and in zoos.
Different communication tactics
In their paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, entitled Individual diversity and plasticity in infant-directed communication in orangutan mothers, they reveal: Monkeys adjust their communication to different social contexts, similar to how humans do..
Differences exist not only in the composition of the gesture repertoire of mothers, but also in the behavior of mothers. communication tactics and in their responses to the demands of their youth, regardless of the environment.
Orangutans are often found alone or in very small groups in the wild. Permanent bonds exist only between mothers and their offspring. But this particular bond lasts long: An orangutan mother spends nine years preparing her cub for life alone..
“The mother-infant relationship in orangutans is therefore ideal for our study of intraspecific communication in great apes,” explains Marlen Fröhlich. Despite their reputation as “lone monkeys”, Orangutans have a rich repertoire of tactile and visual skills and gestures, both in captivity and in the wild.they use it in various social contexts”.
Fröhlich and other researchers looked at the extent to which orangutan communication behavior varies among individuals and how it simultaneously adapts to different social conditions.
“To this end, we studied the differences in the orangutan mothers’ repertoires for the baby. We did this by analyzing the similarity of gestures between individual mothers living in captivity or in the wild,” he explains.
Moreover, The team analyzed how female orangutan communication patterns changed in different social contexts.for example by sharing food or playing with other people.
behavioral flexibility
Researchers analyzed 4,839 video recordings of 13 Borneo orangutans (i put pygmaeus) and others from Sumatra (i put abeli). They started from the basic The success of primate mothers in breeding may depend on their ability to recognize and respond appropriately to cues from their offspring, as well as their ability to direct and coordinate their offspring’s behavior using cues..
“As one of the most effective ways to influence the behavior of others, communication is the glue that binds mothers and calves togetherIt collects work, which becomes more evident in the coordination of daily routines such as meals and shared outings.
“The gesture similarity between Bornean and Sumatran orangutan mothers differs significantly when the monkeys live in different environments. This finding is consistent with previous comparisons between wild and zoo-dwelling animals,” says Fröhlich.
“Most surprising, Orangutan mothers exhibit significant behavioral flexibility at the individual level. They communicate and respond differently depending on the social context.“, sums up the scientist.
For example, some orangutan mothers willingly meet their offspring’s demands only in some social contexts, while others do so in all circumstances.
“Consistent individual differences, namely ‘personality’, have been defined in social behavior.in numerous animal taxa, and more recently – as in this case – also between great ape species, including patterns of relationships or direct physical interactions,” the researchers emphasize.
Reference work: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0200
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